THE LEAD
Fairfield University Volleyball competes for the 14th MAAC Championship in program history this weekend at Siena's UHY Center in Loudonville. The top-seeded and MAAC Regular Season Champion Stags begin their postseason in Saturday's semifinal round against an the winner of Friday's quarterfinal between Canisius and Iona.
The other side of the bracket will feature second-seeded Quinnipiac challenging either Rider or Merrimack in Saturday's second semifinal.
The 2024 MAAC Championship Match is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 24 at 1 p.m.
2024 MAAC REGULAR SEASON CHAMPIONS
Fairfield Volleyball is the only team in the nation to have won six consecutive outright Regular Season Championships (no shares, no divisions). In total, the Stags have won or shared 23 of the last 29 MAAC Regular Season crowns.
In addition to six consecutive MAAC Regular Season Championships, the Stags have won nine of the last 10 and 11 of the last 13 regular season titles.
ALL-MAAC HONORS
Fairfield collected a total of seven year-end awards from the MAAC, as announced this past Wednesday morning. Head Coach
Nancy Somera was selected by her peers as the MAAC Coach of the Year, while six student-athletes received All-MAAC recognition from the league's 12 head coaches.
Allie Elliott,
Mamie Krubally and
Maya Walker were all named to the All-MAAC First Team, the duo of
Mikayla Haut and
Blakely Montgomery earned All-MAAC Second Team distinction, and
Harlan Wyche was selected to the MAAC All-Rookie Team.
Somera earns MAAC Coach of the Year honors for the first time in her second season leading the Stags. She guided Fairfield to a 17-1 MAAC record and the 2024 MAAC Regular Season Championship, following up on 2023's MAAC Regular Season and Tournament Championships in her first year at the helm. Somera is 41-18 overall as the head coach of the Stags.
CHART CLIMBERS
Kyla Berg is only the sixth Stag to eclipse 1,500 career digs. With 1,546 digs and counting, Berg ranks sixth all-time at Fairfield, sitting 48 behind the 1,594 digs tallied by Jazmin Pa'akaula from 2004-07. Berg's 3.47 digs per set throughout her career rank fifth in Fairfield history.
Blakely Montgomery enters the weekend ranked seventh in Stags' history with an even 2,400 career assists.
With 298 blocks and counting,
Maya Walker is ninth all-time at Fairfield. Her 112 rejections this fall also crack the single-season top 10.
FIVE YEARS, FOUR HOUSES
As a five-year member of the Stags this season,
Kyla Berg has played on four different home courts in her five seasons at Fairfield. The 2020 (spring 2021) Stags played home matches at both Alumni Hall and Rafferty Gymnasium (basketball practice facility) inside the Walsh Athletic Center. In 2021 and 2022, Fairfield played inside the University RecPlex while awaiting the completion of the Leo D. Mahoney Arena - the home of the Stags beginning in jin the fall of 2023.
NON-CONFERENCE NOTES
The Stags went 2-10 in the non-conference season, playing one of the toughest schedules in the MAAC. The Stags' non-MAAC slate featured 11 of 12 teams currently ranked in the top 200 in RPI, including seven in the top 100.
Fairfield's win over Southeastern Louisiana (#55) in the program's best "RPI win" since a 2021 win over High Point, which finished that campaign with an RPI of 48.
