LOUDONVILLE, N.Y. – With a 3-1 victory over Quinnipiac on Sunday at the UHY Center, Fairfield University Volleyball claimed the 2024 MAAC Championship.
Mamie Krubally was named the Championship MVP after putting down 26 kills on .479 hitting in the tournament.
For Fairfield (21-11), the MAAC Championship is their second straight, third in the last four years and the 14th in program history. Head Coach
Nancy Somera claimed her second MAAC Championship in two years leading the Stags.
Krubally was joined on the All-Championship Team by
Maya Walker and
Blakely Montgomery.
"We needed to come out ready to play against a very tough opponent, and we responded with one of our most complete matches of the season," Somera said. "Other than a bit of a passing breakdown in Set 3, we were on target offensively, incredibly scrappy on defense, and just did all of the little things we needed to do to bring home a MAAC Championship."
In today's match,
Mikayla Haut set the offensive pace with 15 kills at a .325 clip. Krubally had 11 on .435 hitting and Walker put down nine kills on 13 swings for a .615 mark. As a unit, the Stags hit a sizzling .340.
Supplementing the attack was
Allie Elliott with eight kills, Svenja Rodenbüsch with seven and
Emma Beretich with six finishers on nine errorless swings.
The setting duo on Montgomery and
Abby Jandro dished out 27 and 20 assists, respectively.
Defensively, Beretich had a hand in five of the Stags' eight blocks along with two apiece for Rodenbüsch, Haut and Walker.
Kyla Berg led the back row with 13 digs, Elliott had 12 and Haut completed a double-double with 10. Jandro was just short of her own double-double with nine digs.
In the first set, the Stags raced out to a 4-0 lead and never looked back. The margin first hit double figures at 16-6 and the Bobcats were never closer than within eight the rest of the way as the Stags took a 1-0 lead with a 25-14 decision. Fairfield hit .630 in the frame with 17 kills on 27 errorless swings – led by four apiece from Haut and Rodenbüsch on the outside.
Set two featured much more back-and-forth action, though the Stags never trailed after taking a quick 3-2 lead. The turning point came via a 6-1 run, including two kills apiece from Haut and Walker, that turned a 10-9 edge into a 16-10 lead for the tournament's top seed. The Bobcats clawed back to within two points on multiple occasions, including 23-21, before the Stags put the frame away by a 25-21 count to come within one set of a MAAC Championship.
Quinnipiac started Set 3 with an ace for its first lead of the afternoon, and the Bobcats soon built a 12-7 advantage. The Stags kept pace of the way, but trading points was not enough to erase the early deficit as QU kept the match alive with a 25-19 decision.
After a dual to start Set 4, one run made the difference as Fairfield rattled off five in a row to open up a 14-8 lead. The Bobcats never came closer than four points the rest of the way, with Walker putting down championship point to clinch title, 25-16 in the set and 3-1 in the match.
Quinnipiac was led by MAAC Player of the Year Elena Giacomini with 24 kills and 23 digs.
Fairfield University Volleyball learns its opponent and destination for the 2024 NCAA Championship next Sunday, Dec. 1 when the bracket is revealed at 6 p.m. on ESPN.
