The Fairfield woman’s volleyball team fell twice this past weekend in Fairfield Invitational Tournament.
The Lady Stags (2-5) lost to Penn State and New Hampshire on Saturday. The Nittany Lions (6-0) defeated Fairfield 3-0 behind Mishka Levy’s 16 kills.
New Hampshire slipped by Fairfield earlier in the day in a suspenseful five-game match. Junior Laurie Brands recorded 18 kills and nine digs, but that was not enough to stop the Wildcats.
“In this tournament I felt we improved in being more consistent in our passing, serves, and our backcourt defense,” said first year coach Jeff Werneke. “We just need to be more consistent in everything we do to improve throughout the year.”
The Stags won the first game of their thrilling match versus UNH 30-22, but the Wildcats bounced back by winning the next two 30-19, and 30-27. Fairfield refused to lose and won an extremely close fourth game 32-30. New Hampshire finally ended the Stag’s chances with a 15-7 victory in game five.
Freshman Casey Machon had 17 kills for the Stags and Kristen Anderson had 15 kills for the Wildcats in this five-game match.
“We need to give ourselves opportunities to win matches,” Werneke said. “And by being consistent, that will improve our chances.”
The Stags showed that type of play on Friday night, in their first match of the tournament. Fairfield was victorious against Seton Hall by a score of 3-1. This match had some very close games, but with beautiful play from the Stags, they prevailed as winners. Brands and Machon combined for 28 kills to lead the team to victory.
The Stags are led by seniors Erin Doherty and Sasha Blake.
This weekend the Stags will host the Fairfield Volleyball Classic. Fairfield will have another rough weekend of competition with Harvard, Illinois-Chicago, and Stony Brook in the field.
“Illinois is on a hot streak right now, so they should be tough,” Werneke said. “But this is the first competition for Harvard, so they might be rusty and we need to take advantage of that.”
The Stags face Harvard on Friday at 7p.m. Fairfield then plays Stony Brook on Saturday at 1 before facing the University of Illinois-Chicago at 7 p.m.
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