Under normal circumstances, a Saturday night showdown against Siena is about as a big of a match as its gets for head coach Alija Pittenger and women’s volleyball.
Only this year, there is only one surefire team atop the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, and that’s the Stags, which stretched the team’s season-high win streak to nine with three home wins this past week.
The streak, highlighted by a win over Connecticut and a thrilling come-from-behind win against Niagara, matches a program best reached by last year’s team a season ago.
Fairfield, however, is far from foreign from the MAAC’s top spot. Siena, on the other hand, finds itself in a somewhat unfamiliar role and, with each passing game, appears as if it is a team searching for an identity.
While the Stags have surged to the tune of nine consecutive wins, the Saints have not boasted consecutive victories since the start of conference play. In fact, Siena has lost four of the team’s last six matches, including a 3-1 loss to the Stags at Alumni Hall on Oct. 10.
Some of that, according to Pittenger, is due to a much-improved conference that gets better every season.
“I think anything can happen in the MAAC schedule this year,” Pittenger said of this year’s conference. “I think you’ve seen a lot of upsets so far this year that you probably wouldn’t have seen in the past.”
“We’ve got to be ready for every single game,” Pittenger added.
The improvement and development of the MAAC, though, illustrates just how remarkable Fairfield’s success looks in comparison. Boasting a similarly young starting lineup, the Stags have flourished of late in conference play. Aside from nine consecutive wins, several younger players – including freshman Briana Dixion and sophomore Lauren Balmert – have been honored by the conference with weekly awards thanks to their contributions to Fairfield’s recent success.
Still, perhaps the most logical explanation for Saints’ drop-off stems the Saints’ relatively green stating lineup.
Even though the Saints retained Burgandy McCurty, the team’s premier offensive threat, the supporting cast is, to a certain extent, far different.
The Saints’ graduated four seniors — Emily Kurglik, Kathi Kobayashi, Kelly Hummel, and April London — all of whom played significant minutes and vital roles while enjoying four consecutive MAAC Championships under seven-year head coach Garvey Pierre.
While the team still boasts a variety of talent, it is clear that the Saints were left with a gaping hole in the team’s productivity. Of last year’s senior class, three of four were among the top five in kills a season ago. April London, honored by the league last season as MAAC Setter of the Year, was one of the conference’s elite passers and initiated much of the Saints’ offense.
Pierre, despite the veteran losses, still yields a team with great potential to repeat for an unprecedented fifth consecutive season.
The Saints boast a myriad of strong recruits, and they still have McCurty, the MAAC unanimous selection as the conference’s best player and two-time Offensive Player of the Year, as their top offensive threat. With McCurty on the court, Siena always has a chance to win.
Nonetheless, to say that the tide may be turning in the Stags’ favor is an understatement.
Fairfield can cement that statement this Saturday night.
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