On Friday, Sept. 23, the Fairfield University women’s volleyball team took on Siena College and swept them 3-0. The Stags had nine more kills than Siena, totaling 40 to Siena’s 31. Fairfield also had a stronger hitting percentage at 24.5% compared to Siena’s 14.3%.
Sophomore Allie Elliott had a double-double and graduate student Janna Schlageter had 11 kills for the Stags, leading them to victory. Schlageter also added six digs to her stats. Elliot’s double-double consisted of 10 kills and 10 digs with a .391 hitting percentage. This marked Fairfield’s fourth consecutive win and brought them to 7-4 overall and 3-0 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC).
Other contributors included graduate student Elle Shult and Mamie Krubally ‘27, who had six and five kills and .400 hitting percentages respectively. Blakely Montgomery ‘25 also had a busy game with 25 assists for the Stags and added five of the Stag’s eight aces to help the Stags in their dominant performance.
When asked about the game, head coach Nancy Somera stated, “Today wasn’t the cleanest match we’ve played to date, but a 3-0 road win is always positive.” She continued, “We got exceptional contributions from our bench today, particularly Mamie coming on for one-and-a-half sets and recording five kills on .400 hitting. We didn’t block as well as we are capable of blocking, but we did have some blocks in key moments that helped keep momentum on our side.”
The Stags followed up their match with Siena with another match within the MAAC conference when they took on Marist College. This one they dropped in a five-set closely contested match. No team won a set by more than three points in a match that came down to the wire, with 39 ties and 15 lead changes. Marist had 71 kills to Fairfield’s 54; the Red Foxes also had a slightly better-hitting percentage with a .172 compared to the Stags’ .164. This loss dropped the Stags to 7-5 and 3-1 in conference play and took Marist to 5-10 with a 3-1 record in conference play.
The first set was very tight with the Stags scoring seven straight to take the 19-14 lead, then managing to clinch the set with a 25-22 first-set win. In the following set, the Stags kept their momentum rolling, going up 9-4 before they slowed down and allowed Marist to take the 13-11 lead. Then the teams went back and forth to get it to 22-20 before Marist rattled off five straight points to take the set.
Once again, the team who won the previous set kept momentum rolling into the following set with Marist taking a 10-6 lead in set three. The Stags slowly fought back and got it to a score of 24-23. The Stags then swung the momentum with three straight points, winning the set 26-24 and taking the 2-1 set advantage. The fourth set saw a neck-and-neck fight coming down to the wire with the score getting to 24-24. Marist was able to fight off the Stags and take the fourth set 26-24, tying the match. The fifth and final set saw the Stags going down 8-5 quickly. The Stags showed some toughness to tie it back up at 8-8. The final set remained neck and neck for the next few points before Marist took the 14-11 lead. The Stags managed to win one more point but couldn’t close the gap, dropping the set 15-12 and losing the match.
The Stags’ most staggering stat was their 20 blocks to Marist’s nine. Shult led the Stags with hands on ten of the blocks with Maya Walker ‘26 contributing with nine of her own. Krubally added another six with Elliot and Mikayla Haut each getting a hand on five. Their 20 blocks were the most by a MAAC team since the Stags did it in the 2019 MAAC Championship Match vs. Quinnipiac University.
Elliott also contributed with a team-high 16 digs, Kayla Berg ‘24 also added another 12. Svenja Rodenbusch ‘25 and Montgomery had another nine each. Haut led the Stags with 12 kills and Elliott had nine of her own just missing her second straight double-double. Walker added eight kills with a .375 hitting percentage. Montgomery and Abby Jandro ‘26 had 25 and 18 assists respectively. The Stags also added nine aces offensively, Jandro contributing three of them with Elliot, Montgomery and Rodenbusch each having two of their own.
“It was [a] competitive match against a good team, and we will learn some things from it,” said Head Coach Nancy Somera, according to the game’s official press release. “Our offensive production wasn’t where it needed to be. Credit to Marist for being a tough defensive team, but we didn’t force them to make many adjustments on that end of the court today.”The Stags will play their next match at Manhattan on Sep. 30 then continue the road trip to Iona College on Oct. 1. For more information visit fairfieldstags.com.
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