NIAGARA UNIVERSITY, NY – The Purple Eagles dropped their Sunday afternoon match to the visiting Fairfield Stags in straight sets. Niagara is now 3-8 overall and 1-1 in MAAC play, while the Stags improve to 7-5 overall and 2-0 in conference action.
 
Match Recap: 
First Set
• Niagara and Fairfield went back and forth in set one before the Stags took hold late to capture a 25-23 win.
• Fairfield took an early 6-4 lead over NU in the set, before the Purple and White recorded back-to-back points to tie things at six.
• From there, Niagara and Fairfield would trade points before NU took its first lead of the set at 10-9 on a Fairfield attack error.
•  Niagara's lead would grow to 15-12 following two consecutive points as Kinga Wronska and Kelly McArthur collected back-to-back kills.
• Following the media timeout, Farifield would rattle off a 6-1 run to retake the lead, 18-16.
• A kill from Lexi Bapst, followed by a bad set and attack error by the Stags gave The Purple Eagles a 19-18 lead.
• That lead would grow to 21-11 following a five-point run by the Purple and White.
• The Stags would work their way back to tie it at 21-21, before taking four of the next six points to earn the set win.
 
Set 2
• Fairfield would jump out to an early 5-2 lead in set two, before Laryssa Imbuzeiro stopped the Stag run with a kill.
• That shifted the momentum in NU's favor, leading to a four-point run by the Purple Eagles to tie the set at five.
• With the score 10-10, Fairfield would go on a 5-0 run of its own to take a 15-10 lead.
• The Stags maintained their lead and took a 20-15 lead over Niagara.
• Niagara would score two more points in the set as Fairfield went on to take set two by a score of 25-17.
 
Set 3
• Fairfield would pick up where they left off in set two, taking the first five points of the third set.
• A 7-2 run for the Purple Eagles tied the set at 7-7. During the run, Wronska recorded three kills to reach the double-digit kill mark.
• With the score tied at 10-10, NU would take a two-point lead thanks to a 4-2 spurt, the team's largest lead of the set.
• Fairfield would retake the lead, 15-14, forcing Niagara to call timeout.
• From there, the Stag lead 21-18, forcing the Purple Eagles to use their final timeout of the contest.
• The Stags would take the final four points of the match to complete the sweep of NU.
 
Niagara Notes
• Fairfield leads the all-time series with NU, 41-11, after Sunday's match.
• Wronska posted double-digit kills for the third-straight match and now has five matches this season with 10 or more kills.
• Senior Casey Brown led Niagara with 12 assists, her seventh double-digit assist performance of the season.
• For the second-straight match, Lexi Bapst finished 10 or more digs with a team-best 12.
• Niagara finished the contest with 42 kills and a team hitting percentage of .174, compared to 50 kills for Fairfield and a .263 hitting percentage.
• Niagara had 44 digs, compared to 45 for Fairfield.
• With the loss on Sunday, Niagara is 1-1 in league play for the first time since 2019.
 
Up Next
• Niagara will play a midweek match with Binghamton on Tuesday night in Binghamton, N.Y., before resuming league play with Battle of the Bridge Rival Canisius on Saturday.  
 
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