With two big MAAC conference games to be played this weekend, Fairfield Volleyball knew they had to come ready to play to win on the weekend. With a 3-1 win over Canisius on Saturday and a 3-1 win over Niagara in Sunday, the Stags improved their win streak to five games and their record to 6-3.
“We’ll take the W’s any way we can get them. They played well against Canisius … the comeback we had against them was really great, and the team played with so much heart. Today we were pretty tired and finally pulled through and fought back, which again was good to see,” said Head Coach Alija Pittenger.
Senior Rachel Romansky echoed the sentiment of her coach, saying “This weekend we were just consistent and we were working hard, and we weren’t letting the other team affect us. That was huge for us.”
On Saturday, the Stags took on MAAC rivals Canisius and beat them in four sets, 25-11, 25-19, 23-25 and 25-23. The dominant first set from the Stags saw the team hit .531 with 17 kills and no errors.
In the lone set that went to Canisius, there were four lead changes that ended with Canisius winning 25-23.
Apart from the milestone game from Romansky, several other Stags also stepped up and had a big impact on the victory.
Junior Caitlin Stapleton and Marilyn Peizer ‘15 both contributed an impressive 14 kills in the win, while also stepping up in other areas as well. Stapleton had three digs to add to her kills, while Peizer contributed four digs and a career-high three aces.
Senior Hayley Moyer contributed her season high 12 kills while also adding in three blocks. Sophomore Maddie FitzPatrick tied her season high in both kills and blocks with six and three respectively.
Besides the strong offensive effort from the Stags, the defensive effort was just as strong for the Stags. Red-shirt senior Carsen Mata contributed a career-high 28 digs, which included the 800th dig of her career. Junior Lindsay Weaver had a career 11 digs in the win as well.
The Sunday game Niagara saw the Stags take a 3-1 win over the Purple Eagles. The Stags hit .304 throughout the four sets while also adding 63 kills, seven aces and 82 digs.
They statistically dominated Niagara who ended the match with 44 kills, six aces and 60 digs.
The Stags secured the victory in four sets, 23-25, 25-21, 25-20, 25-13. After the slow start in the first set, the Stags entered the second set quickly, going ahead 16-9. From the second set on, the game was all Fairfield who cruised on to a victory.
“I thought yesterday we finally played like ourselves, which was really good. I think we battle back against a hard team…Today we were tired, and we worked through that, and that was really good for us,” said Romansky
Romansky ended the game with her third-straight double-double and her tenth of the year, with a season-high 51 assists and 15 digs. Sophomore Hadley Orr also contributed a double-double, her third of the season, with 13 kills and 15 digs.
“Hadley did a good job. She’s been been passing well, and she was taking some really good swings. When she plays well, she can really gives us a lot of momentum and help out the team a lot, and she is definitely a big part of these two wins,” said Pittenger
For the fifth straight game, Stapleton had double-digit kills with 15. Weaver set a new career high for digs, replacing her 11 from the day before with 13.
Freshman Megan O’Sullivan left her mark on the game, coming off the bench to have six kills.
The Stag s will look to add on to their five game winning streak when they travel to Marist on October 19th, and Siena on October 20th.
“I think everybody in the league is a little afraid now that we’re coming back and doing well,” said Romansky.
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