Final Stats

If Siena is going to win its 10th MAAC Championship on its home court next weekend, it's going to have to do it the hard way. The Saints were swept at Marist (25-23, 25-15 and 25-13) in its final regular-season match Saturday, and lost a First Round bye in the process.

Siena will be the three seed in the Championships and play Canisius or Niagara in the First Round Friday at 8 p.m. in the ARC. Marist earned one of the two Tournament byes with the win, and Fairfield clinched the regular-season championship and top seed with a sweep of Manhattan.

The Saints entered the week alone in first place in the conference, but lost Wednesday at Fairfield and suffered its most lopsided defeat of the MAAC season Saturday.

Siena had beaten Marist in four competitive sets earlier this year at home, but the Red Foxes would not be denied on Senior Day.

Briana Flagg led all players with 11 kills for Siena, but Marist used a balanced attack to pull away late in the match.

The first set was tied at 23-23, but Marist won the final two points thanks to an attack error and an Ashton Korona kill. The Red Foxes jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the second set and were never seriously threatened again the rest of the match, coasting to 25-15 and 25-13 wins in the final two sets.

Amanda Schlegel had 36 assists on Marist's 40 kills and distributed the ball evenly around the front row. Kelsey Lahey led the way with 10 kills, Courtney Shaw and Devon Dawson each had eight.

Siena has lost four of six matches entering the Championships, after starting the year 10-2 in MAAC play. Still, Tournament time is Siena time and the Championship will be contested on Siena's home court where the Saints lost just once in nine matches this season (Fairfield in four tight sets).