Fairfield avenges Saturday loss to Bloodhounds

Make no mistake: The road to the Southeast Conference title still runs through Jefferson County.

The Fairfield volleyball team made that perfectly clear with a bold, three-set victory over Fort Madison on Tuesday. The Trojans won the match 25-17, 25-20, 25-17 at Fairfield High School gymnasium.

The result was much different than the last time the teams met, just a few days earlier. The two teams faced off for the first time Saturday at the Grayhound Invitational, and the Bloodhounds surprised Fairfield with an 8-25, 25-18, 15-10 win.

This time, there would be few, if any, surprises.

Led by Erin Thompson?s 12 kills, Sydney Howard?s perfect 22-for-22 serving and Sydney Burnett?s 24 assists, the Trojans jumped out to a big, early lead and never looked back. Fairfield grabbed a 12-1 advantage in game one and only trailed once in the entire match ? down 1-0 at the start of game two.

?I think the loss fired us up. We didn?t want to lose to them in the regular conference games,? said Thompson, a senior. ?We wanted to win, were fired up and didn?t want them to come in and think they could do it.?

Fairfield head coach Nancy Diers knew what to expect out of Fort Madison in the teams? second meeting and planned accordingly.

?We hoped our mindset was a little better than Saturday. We wanted to identify their attackers, and we wanted to be much more aggressive with our own hitting,? the 27-year coach said. ?We talked about where we could score some points ? as far as position on the court ? and I thought we did a nice job of picking that apart.?

Diers felt one of the Trojans? strengths Tuesday was again with its serve, and that was apparent from the get-go.

Burnett served up an ace for Fairfield?s first point in the match, and moments later Howard went on a 10-point service run to build Fairfield?s lead to 12-1. In the early yet critical stretch, Howard recorded both her aces on the night, and Sidney Baumann and Thompson sprinkled in two kills apiece.

Going into the match, the Trojans had hoped a quick lead on their home court would send a message to the Bloodhounds.

?It was very important so they could see we would mean business, and that we?re not going to back down like we did on Saturday,? Thompson said.

Mission accomplished.

Fairfield held a double-digit lead all the way to 20-10, but then slackened the reins. The Bloodhounds scored five of the next seven points, cutting Fairfield?s lead to 22-15, but a kill and subsequent ace by Thompson handed Fairfield a 24-15 advantage. Junior McKenna Ledger finished the Bloodhounds off three points later with a kill of her own.

Together, the two right side hitters combined for 16 of the squad?s 38 kills in the match, and Diers said it was a great way to take some pressure of Fairfield?s outside hitters.

?We wanted to get everybody involved in the offense and make us not so one-dimensional,? said Diers. ?We got 16 kills out of our right side and that?s something a lot of teams can?t get.?

Game two was a little closer but ended with the same positive result for the Trojans. The teams opened the game tied 5-all, and Fort Madison kept Fairfield in its sights, trailing 11-9. A sideout by Fort Madison and back-to-back kills by Thompson and Marisa Repp handed Fairfield its largest lead of the night at 14-9. Fort Madison came within two points of Fairfield at 17-15, but the Trojans scored eight of the final 13 points, capped by a well-placed Thompson kill for the win.

With Fort Madison?s spirit seemingly broken at the start of game three, the Trojans again struck early. Both Howard and Repp went on a pair of service runs to hand Fairfield a 12-6 cushion, and the Bloodhounds never got closer than five points the rest of the match.

The Trojans ended up with five aces on the night and connected on 70 of 73 attempts. Baumann tallied nine kills, five assists and 18 digs, Repp had six kills, Howard finished with five kills and 14 digs and libero Cheyanne Laux had a team-high 19 digs.

With the win, the Trojans have a 16-4 mark overall, 38-13 record in games played and 4-0 record in SEC play. Mount Pleasant sits in second place in the conference at 4-1, and the Bloodhounds are currently third with a 2-2 mark.

?All in all, it was a great win for us,? said Diers. ?It gets us in a position where we need to work for the second round, but there are definitely some things we need to get better at. Serve receive would be one, and blocking would be two. It gives us something to work on in practice.?

The Trojans have another big week ahead and an opportunity to take another huge step toward the conference title. They open the second round of conference play Tuesday at home against Mount Pleasant (10-13).

FAIRFIELD ? 25, 25, 25

FT MADISON ? 17, 20, 17

Kills ? (FF) Thompson 12, Baumann 9, Repp 6, Howard 5, Ledger 4, Burnett 2

Assists ? (FF) Burnett 24, Baumann 5, Thompson 3

Serving ? (FF) Howard 22-22 (2), Burnett 12-13 (1), Thompson 9-10 (1), Baumann 8-9 (1), Repp 12-12, Laux 7-7

Blocks (solo-asst-tot) ? (FF) Repp 0-1-1, Howard 0-1-1

Digs ? (FF) Laux 19, Baumann 18, Howard 14, Burnett 11, Thompson 7, Repp 6, Greiner 4, Ledger 1, Payne 1