Oct. 7, 2006
LOUDONVILLE, N.Y. -- Eleven months ago the Fairfield volleyball team had their hopes a of Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Championship title dashed when it fell to Siena in the championship match. Entering today's contest, the two teams again found themselves on top of the conference, as both stood undefeated in MAAC play, and the stage was set for a showdown. This time, the Stags came out on top downing the Saints, 3-1 (29-31, 30-26, 30-22, 30-24) to move to a perfect 6-0 in conference play and 9-6 overall while Siena drops to 7-1 in the MAAC and 11-9 overall.
It was another total team effort by Fairifeld as two Stags posted double-doubles while four others recorded double figures. Senior Lindsey Lee (Hilo, Hawaii) recorded her tenth double-double of the year with a match-high 19 kills and 13 digs. With today's kill totals, Lee stands just 15 shy of becoming the fifth Stag in program history to record 1,000 career kills. Setter Barbie Thistle (Bakersfield, Calif.) notched her fourth double-double of the year with 53 assists and 12 digs. Thistle narrowly missed a triple-double as she recorded a career-high seven kills and a career-high six service aces. Thistle also hit .462 for the match.
Junior Kelly Oliver (San Diego, Calif.) posted 16 kills and nine digs while senior Natalie Barba (Austin, Texas) tallied 10 kills, on .381 hitting, and eight total blocks. Freshman Katie Mann (Del Mar, Calif.) chipped in with 12 kills. Defensively, sophomore Brandi Higa (Honolulu, Hawaii) registered a career-high 20 digs.
The Stags tallied 14 service aces on the day and out-blocked the Saints, 10-7. Fairfield also recorded 70 kills while Siena had 58 kills.
The match was tight from the get-go as Siena came back from a 14-9 deficit in the opening game to edge Fairfield, 31-29. With the Saints serving for game point, Barba was able to pick up a kill and tie the score 29-29. But the Saints took advantage of a Stags service error and closed out the game with an ace for the win.
With the score knotted 7-7 in the second game, Fairfield went on an 11-4 run, capped off by a kill by Mann, to take an 18-11 lead. The Saints did not back down, going on a 9-2 spurt to tie the score 20-20. Lee broke the tie with a kill on the next serve to put the Stags ahead to stay.
Fairfield came out strong in the third game by jumping out to a 17-8 lead. The Stags would extend that margin to 25-13 on a kill by Oliver and would cruise to the victory.
The final game was back-and-forth with several ties and lead changes. Tied 20-20, a bad service by the Saints would ignite a 5-1 run by the Stags and give them enough momentum to pull out the 30-24 win.
Fairfield is back in action tomorrow, October 8, when it hosts Loyola at 2 p.m. at Alumni Hall.
