EDISON, N.J. – After posting a pair of record-setting performances this past week, Mayda Garcia and Alexis Rich have earned Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) honors for the final week of the regular season. Garcia was tabbed as MAAC Player of the Week for the third time this fall, while Rich takes home MAAC Rookie of the Week honors for the fourth time in her freshman campaign.
 
Garcia led the Fairfield attack with 5.22 kills per set on .283 hitting in nine sets of work against Niagara and Canisius this past week. She added 4.56 digs per frame in the back row en route to a pair of double-doubles. In Saturday's comeback win over Niagara, she recorded two personal career bests with 29 kills – the highest single-match total in the MAAC this season – and 26 digs. She is the first Stag to post a 25-kill, 25-dig showing since Kelly Oliver (26 kills, 26 digs) in the 2007 MAAC Championship Match.
 
At the close of the regular season, Garcia ranks third in the MAAC with 3.54 kills per set, hitting .157 on the outside. Defensively, she averages 2.49 digs per frame with 33 total blocks.
 
Rich set a Fairfield rally-scoring era record on Saturday with 68 assists against the Purple Eagles. The total is the seventh-highest in Fairfield's overall record book and the highest by a MAAC student-athlete since 2004. For the week, she averaged 12.56 assists per frame with 4.11 digs per set to record a pair of double-doubles.
 
Thus far in her rookie campaign, Rich ranks second in the MAAC with 10.64 assists per set. She has distributed 1,043 assists – the sixth Stag to reach 1,000 helpers as a freshman.
 
After wrapping up the regular season at 12-15 overall and 11-7 in the MAAC, the Stags have earned the fourth seed in this weekend's MAAC Championship. Fairfield begins the postseason at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex against ninth-seeded Manhattan on Thursday, Nov. 15 at 12:30 p.m.