MAAC Championship Notes

The Stags will head to the 2008 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Volleyball Championship, Nov. 23-24, in Loudonville, N.Y. The top-seeded Stags will face fourth-seeded Iona in Sunday's second semifinal match at 4 p.m. Tournament host Siena, the second seed, will face third-seeded Canisius at 1 p.m. in the first semifinal. The MAAC Championship final will be held on Monday at 7 p.m. and will air live on ESPNU.

Saturday's semifinals will be video streamed and GameTracker will be provided for all matches. For more information, visit MAAC Championship Central.

Fairfield (19-12, 16-2 MAAC) vs. Iona (19-11, 11-7 MAAC): The Stags and the Gaels split the regular season series. In the first meeting of the season, Fairfield posted a decisive 3-0 victory against Iona at Alumni Hall. Three weeks later in New Rochelle, N.Y., the Gaels notched a 3-1 victory. The loss was the first to Iona since 2004, snapping a six match winning streak. Despite the loss, Fairfield is 28-9 all-time against the Gaels. Junior Katie Mann is averaging 3.85 kills against Iona this season and is a career .399 hitter against them with 26 blocks and 12 aces in 23 sets. Senior Brandi Higa is averaging 4.12 digs per set for her career against the Gaels.

Fairfield in the MAAC Championship: Fairfield, which has appeared in each of the last 13 MAAC Championship tournaments, had a string of five MAAC Championship crowns between 1997-2001. Since then, the Stags have gone 20-10 in MAAC Championship action. Six of those losses have come in the championship final, including occurrences in each of the past four years. In 2007, Fairfield shared the regular season crown with Siena and was edged by the Saints, 3-2 (30-20, 26-30, 30-27, 26-30, 12-15) in the final match of the tournament for the third year in a row.