Trojans win weekend volleyball tournament

BURLINGTON ? The Fairfield volleyball team got its feet wet at its first Saturday tournament of the season, winning the team title at the Burlington-Notre Dame tournament with four victories.

The Trojans won pool play as well as the championship match to nearly double their wins total in 2012.

Fairfield (9-0, 2-0 SEC) opened with a win against Keokuk, defeated Centerville and West Burlington and closed out the tournament with a victory over Danville in the championship game.

?All in all I thought the kids just came through and really played well,? said Fairfield head coach Nancy Diers. ?It?s a nice tournament ... and a good one to get started and get your Saturdays rolling.?

The opening game against Keokuk kicked off at 9 a.m. and served as a preview of the Southeast Conference match coming up Sept. 18 at Keokuk. A service run by Sidney Baumann helped Fairfield take a 9-1 lead in the first game, and the Trojans never looked back en route to a 21-11, 21-19 victory.

Baumann was 11-for-12 on serves with six aces in the match, and she also tallied a team-high five kills as well as 10 digs. Cheyanne Laux had 15 digs, Sydney Burnett provided seven assists and Hanna Greiner put down four kills.

?You want to set a precedence for conference as we play them in a week,? said Diers. ?We survived the second game and [afterward] talked about what we need to do even better.?

The Trojans then eked out a 21-19, 21-19 victory over Centerville, a team that has been known to give Fairfield fits in the past. In the match, Baumann and Erin Thompson led the offense with six kills apiece, and Marisa Repp totaled three block assists.

The Trojans continued their dominance in the third match, where they claimed an easy 21-12, 21-14 win over West Burlington. Alexis Ring had a team-high nine assists in the match, and Greiner tallied three blocks.

?We just kind of took it to them from the get go and didn?t let them ever get balanced,? Diers said.

In the final match against Danville, Fairfield claimed the title with a 25-21, 25-23 win. Baumann led the Trojan hitters with 10 kills ? a high for the day ? as well as 14 digs. Greiner and McKenna Ledger tallied five and four block assists, respectively.

The Trojans have an entire week off before the Ottumwa Invite on Saturday.