POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – It took 39 ties and 15 lead changes throughout five back-and-forth to decide a winner on Sunday as Fairfield University Volleyball traveled to Poughkeepsie to challenge Marist. In the end, it was the host Red Foxes who took the match, 3-2, by set scores of 22-25, 25-22, 24-26, 26-24 and 15-12.
 
The loss snaps a four-match winning streak for the Stags, who fall to 7-5 overall and 3-1 in the MAAC. Marist bounces back from a five-set "reverse sweep" loss to Quinnipiac on Saturday to improve to 5-10 on the season with a 3-1 MAAC record.

"It was a competitive match against a good team, and we will learn some things from it," said Head Coach Nancy Somera. "Our offensive production wasn't where it needed to be. Credit to Marist for being a tough defensive team, but we didn't force them to make many adjustments on that end of the court today."
 
Fairfield piled up 20 blocks in the match, with Elle Shult getting a piece of a 10 and Maya Walker having a hand in nine of those rejections. Mamie Krubally joined in on six blocks, while Allie Elliott and Mikayla Haut each had five. The 20 blocks were the most by a MAAC teams since Fairfield had 20 stuffs against Quinnipiac in the 2019 MAAC Championship Match.
 
Also on the defensive end, Allie Elliott had a team-best 16 digs, with Kyla Berg notching 12 from the libero spot. Svenja Rodenbusch and Blakely Montgomery each had nine.
 
Offensively, the attack was led by Haut with 12 kills. Elliott added nine to fall just shy of a double-double, and Walker put down eight from the middle on .375 hitting. The offense was managed by Montgomery's 25 assists and 18 dished out by Abby Jandro.
 
To cap the scoring, Jandro served up three service aces and the trio of Elliott, Montgomery and Rodenbusch landed two winners apiece.

How It Happened

SET 1 | The opening stretch of action saw Marist take an 11-10 lead before Fairfield went on a 3-0 run to take a lead that it would not relinquish.Another four-point spurt extended the lead to 19-14, and the Stags held off a late charge to take a 25-22 decision and a 1-0 lead in the match.

SET 2 | Fairfield took an early 9-4 lead in Set 2 bedfore Marist made its first extended run of the match, running off six in a row to gain a 13-11 edge. The Stags pushed back in front, 22-20, but would not score again as the Foxes won five rallies in a row to take the set, 25-22, and even the match at 1-1.

SET 3 | After the Stags erased an 10-6 deficit, the action went back-and-forth for the duration of Set 3. Marist was the first team to get to set point with a slim 24-23 advantage, but a Shult kill evened the frame, and a Haut and Walker block swung the lead back to Fairfield at 25-24. The Stags capitalized on their set point chance, with Haut getting the kill for the 26-24 victory.

SET 4 | The trend continued in Set 4, which featured 12 ties. The last of which came at 24-24, courtesy of Fairfield fighting off a pair of set point opportunity for Marist. However, the Red Foxes were the ones to break out of the deadlock as back-to-back kills from Jordan Newblatt and Sasha van der Merwe gave the set to the hosts at 26-24 to send the contest to a deciding fifth frame.

SET 5 | The first run of Set 5 went to Marist, reeling off three points to take an 8-5 lead, but Fairfield responded in kind and the match was soon tied again at 8-8. The final tie of the afternoon came at 11-11, as Marist pulled even on a van der Merwe kill to start a 4-0 run that brought the proceedings to match point at 14-11. Fairfield fought off one attempt on a Rodenbusch kill, but Marist converted the next attempt to take the set, 15-12, and the match, 3-2.

Up Next

Another Empire State weekend is on deck for the Stags with a trip to Manhattan on Sept. 30 and a visit to Iona on Oct. 1. Manhattan in 2-12 overall and 1-3 in the MAAC after falling to Canisius and Niagara. Iona split the Buffalo trip to enter the weekend at 7-8 on the season and 3-1 in league play.

This article created using technology provided by Data Skrive.