FAIRFIELD, Connecticut – The Red Foxes picked up a huge victory over Fairfield, securing a 3-1 match win Sunday afternoon. With the win, Marist moves to 14-12 overall and 11-5 in conference play. The win kept Marist in a tie for third with Rider and bumped Fairfield down to fifth.
After taking an early lead in set one, Fairfield picked up some momentum and went on a run to get the score to set point at 24-18. Facing defeat, Marist buckled down and rattled off six points to tie up the set. Fairfield would score the next point but Marist would close out the set with a 3-0 run to win it 27-25. The Red Foxes played excellently in the front line, finishing the set with six total blocks.
Marist and Fairfield went back in forth in set two until Fairfield used a 7-1 run to take command of the set. The Red Foxes were unable to make up ground and dropped it 25-15.
Chidera Udeh provided a spark for the Red Foxes going into the media time-out, landing a block and back to back kills to bring the score to 15-12 Marist. Fairfield would come back to equalize the set. At 20 all, Marist would go on a 5-1 to pick up the set win.
Taylor van der Biezen had a hand in four of the five points, setting up two kills, landing a kill herself and tallying a block assist.
Megan Fergus ignited an already fired up Marist team, landing three kills and a block to force Fairfield to burn a timeout at 7-1. Marist continued its strong offense, scoring a string of kills and forcing Fairfield to burn timeout number two at 12-6. The Stags would come within one of Marist but the Red Foxes were never fazed and Udeh hit a kill to give Marist a 25-21 set win.
- Marist dominated the front line, finish the match with 12 blocks. Van der Biezen led the team with six total blocks, followed by Fergus with five and Udeh with four.
- Nikki DeSerpa had a match high 15 kills. She also had a double-double, tallying 13 digs.
- Van der Biezen filled up the stat sheet, adding 38 assists, two service aces and five kills.
- Morgan Owens had another strong defensive performance, notching 17 digs and two aces.
- After cracking the top ten in career service aces yesterday, van der Biezen moved up a tie for eighth with 109. She also moved into fifth all-time assists with 2650 career assists.
- This is Head Coach Lauren Amundson's first win over Fairfield. The last time Marist beat Fairfield was in 2014 in the semifinal round of the MAAC tournament.
- The last time Marist won at Fairfield was 2002.
Marist will close out the regular season next weekend with matches against Iona and Manhattan.
