Volleyball Travels to Saint Louis, Dayton this Weekend

Watch: at Dayton
Live Stats: Saint Louis | Dayton
 
Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham volleyball team (12-12, 4-7 A-10) will finish up the regular season on the road, looking to pick up crucial results while trying to clinch a postseason berth. First up will be Saint Louis (9-14, 6-4 A-10) on Friday night at 7 p.m. EST, followed by the three-time defending league champions, Dayton (18-7, 9-1 A-10), on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. The Rams currently sit seventh in the standings, with the top six moving on to the A-10 Championship.  
 
Only Sunday's match will be streamed online, while both contests will also have live stats.
 
Breast Cancer Awareness Month
The calendar may have flipped to November but the Rams and the Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Research are still accepting donations for the team's drive to raise $2,000! The goal is less than $350 from being met. To make a donation, CLICK HERE.
 
Last Time Out
The Rams had just one contest, hosting Rhode Island on Senior Night last Friday, but fell in straight sets to the visiting Rams. Olivia Fairchild notched a match-high 16 kills plus six digs, three blocks, and an ace. Fairchild continues to sit atop the Division I standings for aces. Olivia LaPorta tallied seven kills, while McKenna Lahr racked up a team-high 15 digs to go with her six kills. Senior Grace Muller made her first start of the year, tallying two aces and three digs.
 
Series History
Saint Louis squeaked out a five-set victory over the Rams just a few weeks ago at the Rose Hill Gym, rallying to win sets four and five. The result was the Bilikens' 18th all-time against Fordham dating back to 2005. The Rams' lone victory came on the road in five sets in 2011.
 
Fordham also only has one win against Dayton but the series has been around a lot longer, since 1995 when the Rams joined the Atlantic 10. Fordham played the Flyers tough at home the same weekend as the Saint Louis match, but fell in four sets. The win was Dayton's 38th over Fordham. The Rams' lone win came all the way back in 1997, at home in five sets.
 
Fairchild, Rams Acing the Test
The Rams have enjoyed a tremendous season along the baseline to date, ranking first in the country with 2.09 aces per set and third overall with 178 total aces, behind only UMES and Robert Morris. The Rams have played 28 and 17 fewer sets, respectively. While Fordham has four other players with at least 19 aces on the year, it's Fairchild that's leading the country with her serving. The sophomore is up to 56 aces on the year, good for 0.66 per set, which ranks second in the country, and just recently entered Fordham's all-time top-10 list for career aces, now alone in eighth with 113. She is just three away from leapfrogging Kailee May '10, into seventh place. Only one player has ever served up more than 156 aces: Jenn Shea from 1991-94, with 256. Fairchild also just entered the single-season top-10 for a second straight season. She's one away from tying last year's mark of 57 for ninth all-time.
 
Fairchild, like Lahr a week ago, also set the school four-set record with eight aces against George Washington a couple weeks ago and matched the overall single-match record, the same day that the squad, as a whole, matched the four-set record, as well. Lahr, herself, with that performance rocketed up the Division I standings after an early-season hot stretch, now ranks eighth in the country with 0.51 aces per set and 55th overall with 34. Click here to view the record book.
 
Atlantic 10 Ranks
The Rams rank fifth in the league with a .201 team attack percentage, sixth with 11.56 assists per set, sixth with 12.26 kills per set, seventh with 13.68 digs per set, eighth with 1.42 blocks per set, and, of course, first with 2.09 aces per set.
 
At the individual level, Fairchild ranks first with her 56 aces, and also leads the A-10 with 305 kills and 3.59 kills/per set average. Olivia LaPorta ranks ninth with her .293 attach percentage, while Walsh's 629 assists rank sixth overall, and her 8.17 assists per set ranks fifth. Morgan Williams' 344 digs and 4.05 digs per set rate rank eighth and sixth, respectively. Lahr's 34 aces rank fifth, with teammates Williams, Kaitlin Morley, and Molly Oshinski within the top-31. Lahr's 0.51 aces per set, though, ranks third, while Fairchild's 0.66 sits just behind Saint Louis' Sien Gallop, who averages 0.67 per.
 
During conference play, Fordham's ranks are nearly identical. However, Morley and Fairchild rank second and third, respectively, with 3.34 and 3.28 kills per set. Fairchild ranks second with 128 kills behind Saint Louis' Maya Taylor. Maddy Walsh is third with 376 assists and second with 10.16 assists per set, just one of two players to average double figure assists, or even more than nine per set, alongside Duquesne's Dani Suiter.
 
Williams Digs Into History
Despite a loss to Cleveland State, sophomore libero Williams tied a program record with 22 digs in just three sets during Fordham's home opener. Williams' personal best is 26, set at New Orleans on opening day earlier this year. The talented sophomore's current 4.05 digs per set average would fall just shy of the single-season record, although she was recently surpassing it as recently as two weeks ago. She would still be just the second player to ever average more than four per set. The current mark is Jenn Shea's 4.10, set in 1994. She's also on pace to tally a top-three total digs number, as well.
 
Up Next
The Rams round out the regular season with a vital road trip to Rhode Island. Rhody currently sit just in front of Fordham in the standings. That match is set for next Friday, November 10, at 7 p.m.