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October 15, 2015Fairfield Slows Down Siena Volleyball
Fairfield raced to a 2-0 lead and held off a fierce Siena charge to post a 3-1 (25-21, 25-21, 24-25 and 26-24) MAAC victory Saturday in Loudonville. Briana Flagg had a career-high 21 kills in a losing effort for the Saints. It was another classic between the two rivals which have combined for 16 conference championships.
The Stags came out firing, controlling the action in the first two sets to take a 2-0 lead into intermission. Siena roared back, posting a dominant 25-14 win in the third set, and the Saints led 23-18 in the fourth before Fairfield closed the match with an 8-1 run to claim the match.
Megan Theiller led a match-changing 6-0 spurt that gave Fairfield a 24-23 lead in the fourth set. Sonja Vasovic rose up for a huge kill to even the set, but Mallory Bechtold won the match with an ace for the Stags.
Skyler Day had 14 kills, 16 digs and an ace for Fairfield. The Stags held a 50-42 advantage in kills, but Siena out-hit Fairfield .142-.087, had a 73-70 advantage in digs, and controlled a 12- margin in blocks. The Saints hit .367 (12-1-30) in their sharp third set win.
Five different Saints reached double figures in digs. Kalehua Katagiri led the way with 17, Bobbi Lin Kalama had 16, Haley Howell and Erin Bies each had 13, and Flagg rounded out a double-double with 11.
Bies was a huge factor for Siena in the backrow and behind the endline with her service. Bies had all three of the Saints’ aces and orchestrated several key rallies.
Fairfield libero Mallory Bechtold amassed 27 digs in the four sets, far and away the most in the match.
Siena will try to get back in the win column Sunday when it hosts Quinnipiac at 1 p.m. The match will be webstreamed on SienaSaints.com.
