FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Fairfield University Volleyball hits the road for the first weekend of the 2025 season with the longest trip of the regular season – a trek to Norfolk, Va. and Old Dominion University for the 2025 Quest for the Crown. The back-to-back MAAC Champion Stags welcome back 11 student-athletes from last year's squad and bring six newcomers into the fold for the fall campaign.
Among the Fairfield returners is a trio of All-MAAC First Team picks from last fall:
Allie Elliott,
Mamie Krubally and
Maya Walker. That group accounted for nearly one half of the Stags' kills and more than half of Fairfield's total points in 2024, guiding the Stags to a 21-12 overall record and a 17-1 tally in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. All three were recognized earlier this month as Preseason All-MAAC.
While the Stags bid farewell to seven graduates who were integral in the 2023 and 2024 MAAC Championships, the 2025 edition of the squad is not lacking for depth or experience.
Abby Jandro – joining her classmates Elliott and Walker as a team captain – returns for her senior campaign at the setter spot, where she appeared in 115 sets helping to engineer Fairfield's 6-2 offense that led the MAAC with a .246 hitting percentage and 13.21 kills per frame. Joining Walker in the middle is 2024 MAAC All-Rookie Team honoree
Harlan Wyche, who put down 43 blocks in 46 sets while hitting .333 in her freshman season.
"The departure of such a large and accomplished group of seniors was definitely felt when we returned to the gym after the winter break," said 2024 MAAC Coach of the Year
Nancy Somera. "But by the end of this past spring, the first-year recruiting class was playing with a lot more maturity, and we had begun to develop our own identity as the 2025 Stags."
Two from that class,
Natalie Carlin and
Delaney Moon, are the two returners with the most experience in the back row, as each saw time in the libero jersey and as defensive specialists last season. As a unit, Fairfield's defense held opponents to .199 hitting last season, ranking third in the MAAC with 15.46 digs per set.
The Stags' six newcomers include
five highly-touted freshmen as well as
sophomore transfer Sophia Nagy, who played the 2024 season in the Patriot League at American University.
"Our gym is young with 12 underclassmen alongside five juniors and seniors, but that makes us a more malleable group," said Somera. "This is the deepest roster since I've been Head Coach at Fairfield, and I'm excited to watch the team progress over the course of the season."
Fairfield will be tested early and often this fall, beginning with this weekend's three matches in Norfolk. In total, the Stags' 10 non-conference opponents recorded a .577 win percentage in 2024. Eight of the 10 owned a final RPI within the top 200 last fall, with West Virginia just outside at 201.
After a second road weekend at Villanova, the Stags will open the home schedule with a three-match week hosting Yale (Sept. 10), Northeastern (Sept. 12) and UConn (Sept. 13).
"Our schedule is designed to be challenging and to put us under pressure," noted Somera. "We will have plenty of opportunities to learn more about ourselves as a team and identify where we need to improve prior to the start of conference play."
The 2025 MAAC schedule will once again consist of 18 matches. Action has shifted to a Friday-Saturday format this fall in addition to each squad playing a midweek series against one of its local conference rivals. As a result of the unbalanced schedule, Fairfield will play seven home-and-home series with Iona, Manhattan, Marist, Merrimack, Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart (midweek), and Siena. The Stags will not host Rider or Saint Peter's and will not travel to Canisius or Niagara.
After winning back-to-back MAAC Championships, Fairfield Volleyball has won a league-leading 14 conference titles. The Stags have also claimed 23 of the last 29 MAAC Regular Season Championships. Fairfield finished 2014 with an RPI of 141 – its fifth consecutive campaign ranked among the top 150 in the nation.
