Some new faces fill the seats of the Stags bench in Alumni Hall, but overall not much has changed from last year. The wins are piling up, and the red and white are once again dominating the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Now winners of five in a row with a record of 4-0 in conference play, Fairfield cemented their place as the MAAC’s team to beat as they made quick work of the St. Peter’s Peacocks 25-17, 25-13, 25-13 on Sunday, Sept. 24.
Fairfield took control of the game from the outset, as they posted 14 kills in the first set. Senior Skyler Day and Mayda Garcia ‘20 each had four kills while Manuela Nicolini ‘20 tallied 13 assists in the set.
The second set provided the Fairfield faithful with more of the same. Junior Kaitlyn Fisher and Garcia put four spikes away as part of a 17-kill set. Nicolini had 16 more assists in the frame to put her total at 29 through three sets.
With two sets in hand, the Stags cruised in the third set, posting their most efficient frame of the match with 12 kills and only three errors. Fairfield finished the match with 43 kills and only 18 errors to boot.
Individually, numerous Stags shined against the Peacocks. Garcia led the offense with 11 kills, while Day finished the afternoon with nine putaways and Nicolini finished with 38 assists. On the defensive end, Day had 13 digs and Taylor Rudeen ‘19 had 11 digs. Junior Sydney Williams led the way with three blocks against the Peacocks.
On this Sunday afternoon, it was undoubtedly Garcia, the Texas native who was the spark plug for the Stags in their controlling win. The outside hitter was humble after the double-digit kill performance and knows how vital her teammates are to her success.
“Going into today, we knew we had to pedal down,” Garcia said. “Any time I went up to hit I heard ‘I got your back’ behind me so that really helped me going up against a block and knowing that if I do hit into the block they will be there to pick me up.”
As the streak continues, Fairfield forges into the heart of MAAC play. Familiar foes whom they know so well fastly approach as they look to take command of the conference and post another undefeated season in the MAAC. As Garcia reiterates, no one game can trump the importance of the one that lies ahead.
“We take everyday like it is a new day. We forget yesterday’s game, forget what we did yesterday even if it was our best game and move on to the next one,” Garcia said.
The Stags return to the court when they travel to Buffalo, N.Y. to take on Canisius College Saturday, Sept. 30 at 1 p.m.
Leave a Reply