The Fairfield women’s volleyball team triumphed for the sixth time in their last seven matches, defeating the Saint Peter’s Peacocks 3-1. For their second straight match, the Stags hit over .300 and finished with 62 kills on just 16 errors. The victory moves Fairfield to a 12-10 record overall and a 8-4 record in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
“What went right was first ball contact,” said Head Coach Todd Kress. “We were clean in serve receives, dug the ball and that allowed Carsen [Mata] ‘14 to get our attackers involved.”
Mata had quite the afternoon as she was one of the anchors for the team. She recorded a career-high six kills as well as a team-leading 51 assists.
Though the Stags won by a fair margin, the match was even paced with both teams having ample scoring opportunities. In the first set, both teams got out to an even start, going 5-5 in the early minutes. However, Saint Peter’s suffered some fatal miscues at this point, putting the set in Fairfield’s favor.
Multiple missed balls and miscommunication issues caused the Peacocks to suffer, giving Fairfield a 7-0 run. At this point, Saint Peter’s called a timeout to regroup and regain communication. Though both teams kept it close, the Stags came out on top in this set at a score of 25-20.
“We just build on that and say ‘Let’s take advantage of the fact that they’re freaking out right now,’” said Hadley Orr ‘16.
The second set was a much more dominant one for Fairfield. Though Saint Peter’s jumped to an early 2-0 lead, the Stags would go on to hit .357 in this set, forcing the Peacocks to commit eight errors. After Megan Theiller ‘18 and Orr each recorded four kills in this set, they saw the second set as a victorious one with a 25-15 win.
Unfortunately, the third set did not end in a similar fashion. Even though there were some Fairfield miscues, the Stags led for most of the set but lost 25-21. Fairfield committed six errors to Saint Peter’s three, and the Peacocks recorded 14 kills, their most in any set on Sunday.
“We had a lineup change and I think that kind of threw us off as to what was going on,” said Orr. “It changed the way we were passing. And then, for example, they served it and I actually could not see the ball across the net because they were screening. It was just little miscues and we all got a little frazzled.”
In the fourth set, Fairfield dominated early taking 14 of the first 19 points. The Stags did not commit a single error in this set and recorded 15 kills with a .455 hit percentage, their highest of the game. Ultimately, Fairfield won this set at a score of 25-10.
The main stars of the contest were Orr and Theiller, who had 16 and 13 kills respectively.
“We gave each other a metaphorical slap and said ‘Let’s go, wake up,’” said Orr. “We helped each other snap out of it.”
Though this was not a blowout for the team, many players received individual accolades.
Orr tied a career-high of 16 kills and Megan O’Sullivan ‘17 tied a career-high with seven block assists.
The Stags will now hit the road for four matches, this being their last road trip of the year. This road trip will start in Loudonville, N.Y. where Fairfield will take on Siena on Oct. 29.
Kress looks to give his team a bit of a break after winning six out of their last seven games.
“We need to rest. We’ve been going hard in practice and the last couple of matches.” said Kress. “Then, we’ll have a quality day in the gym and get ready for Siena because they’re one of the best teams in-conference and a big rival.”
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