NCAA Women
November 27, 2023
MAAC-champion Fairfield opens NCAA Tournament play at 13th-seeded Purdue, which finished third in the Big Ten, on Thursday. Also in West Lafayette, Indiana, Ohio Valley-champion Eastern Illinois plays Marquette of the Big East. The winners play Friday.
Nancy Somera had it pretty good.
After three decades coaching volleyball, she took a step back at the completion of the 2021 season at Division III Johnson & Wales, so she could watch her daughter, Maile, play at Yale.
She also had a visiting professorship at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, that she enjoyed.
Then, last January, Todd Cress and assistant Melissa Batie-Smoose left Fairfield for San Jose State. Fairfield needed someone to guide the team in the interim.
At smaller Division I schools such as Fairfield, the coaching staff often…
