Seniors cap undefeated career

Fairfield put the final polish on a dominant conference season and even more dominant conference career for six seniors to wrap up the regular season Friday night.

The Trojans never faltered in a workman-like 25-15, 25-12, 25-15 victory over Fort Madison that keeps them undefeated in Southeast Conference play for the fourth straight season and tacks one more onto the school-record SEC winning streak that now stands at 35 matches. Before the match, the Trojans honored the six seniors ? most notably Meredith Flattery, who has been right in the thick of the Trojans? run of four conference titles.

?It?s so nice to go out with a win like that, but more importantly, stay undefeated and keep our conference streak alive,? she said. ?It?s a big accomplishment for our class.?

The last Fairfield conference loss came Oct. 4, 2005 ? a five-game match at top-10 ranked Mount Pleasant ? when the seniors were in eighth-grade. Flattery, the lone major contributor returning from a 2008 team that set a school record for wins in a season, didn?t do it alone, however. For several others, their time had come and stepped into the lineup without missing a beat.

?I?m really glad we finished it the way we did because nobody expected it,? said Tyler Emry, also a senior. ?A lot of people were worried about the season because we didn?t have much varsity experience coming in, but we?ve played well and now I?m ready to move on to regionals.?

The Trojans will begin regional play on their home court Monday evening against Keokuk ? the same SEC opponent the Trojans breezed past Tuesday (25-17, 25-16, 25-12) and have beaten three times this season.

?We have a lot of momentum going into regionals against a conference opponent. It?s a postseason game, but we still look at it as a conference match, and when we hear that word, our game face comes on,? Flattery said.

The game face was on Thursday.

Fort Madison jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in game one, but once Heather Mason?s tip hit the floor to give Fairfield a 5-4 lead, the Trojans never let off the gas. The Bloodhounds never led again the entire night and the Fairfield hits kept coming. Flattery kills finished off the final two points of game one to officially get Fairfield rolling.

?Fort Madison came out with an early lead, but they were good long rallies so that was a good sign,? said head coach Nancy Diers. ?Then, we just kept the pressure on them ? we dug their hits, kept the ball alive and it really deflated them while our kids just took off with it."

Emry?s line-drive serve and a good run from Mason propelled Fairfield to a quick lead in game two before the underclassmen, and future of Fairfield volleyball, began to get in on the action. Sophomores Tori Ogden and McKenzie Lyman racked up kills including Lyman?s game-winner that ended game two 25-12.

In game three, Flattery got the Trojans another early lead before Fairfield finished off the match with five underclassmen on the court. Ogden provided the final kill ? one of her three of the match ? to send the Bloodhounds home.

?We?re headed in the right direction,? Diers said. ?One of our goals was to win conference ? going 8-0 was a bit of a surprise and a feather in our cap ? but the credit goes to the kids for buying into the hard work and ?never say die? attitude. We went through the rocky times, and now the girls have their championship?

The win comes on the heels of a Fairfield/Fort Madison match on Sept. 29 that saw the Trojans survive multiple match points to escape with the victory. The difference between that match and Thursday night?

?Four weeks,? said Diers.

?At the beginning of the year we knew we weren?t ball handling very well, our fundamentals weren?t sound and our hitters hadn?t gotten a lot of swings yet. Now, we?ve matured as a team and have gotten better with all of those things.?

?We?ve had to keep working hard all year, getting everything down,? Emry said. ?Now we just have to keep getting better for the next match.?

On senior night, Flattery finished with a team-high 11 kills and four sevice aces, Mason put down four kills, Gretchen Granneman led the way with 20 digs, Emry had 13 assists and Gina Savely chipped in a dig and a kill.