Fairfield back in business Saturday

Three days removed from a loss to Keokuk that broke a 37-match Southeast Conference win streak, and one week away from one of the worst tournament performances in recent memory at Ottumwa, the Fairfield volleyball team was back with authority.

Three of the four SEC opponents joined the Trojans at the Burlington tournament Saturday, and Fairfield posted four wins on the day without a loss until the championship match vs. the host Grayhounds.

?It?s amazing what a week does. It could have gone either way coming off a homecoming Friday night and the loss to Keokuk, but everyone just had a little different work ethic and air about them,? said head coach Nancy Diers.

The Trojans picked up wins against Mount Pleasant ? a team that beat them a week ago ? 21-19, 15-21, 15-11, Muscatine 10-21, 21-15, 15-13 and sent a message with a dominant 21-14, 21-12 victory over the Chiefs.

?We talked about if we were to play [Keokuk] again whether they would be able to pick up everything they did. We played them again, and they didn?t,? Diers said.

Fairfield finished 3-0 in pool play and went on to post a 25-12, 18-25, 15-11 win over Galesburg in bracket play before falling to Burlington. Even in defeat, the Trojans played the Class 4A Grayhounds to a much better match than they did one week earlier in Ottumwa. Burlington won the title match by a score of 25-21, 25-21.

?We left with a lot better feeling about ourselves even though we ended the day with a loss,? said Diers. ?We knew we had given it pretty much our all, and that?s a sign of the team maturing a little bit.?

A big reason for the turnaround was the return of solid serving numbers that had been the team?s trademark early in the season. Tori Ogden played a big role with a team-high six service aces and put together huge serving runs in the two matches that opened the day. Ogden?s runs came in game one vs. Mount Pleasant and game two vs. Muscatine to even the match.

The junior also finished with 34 kills on the day, with her biggest match coming in the rematch with Keokuk. Ogden tallied 11 while sophomore Sidney Baumann, who moved back to the right side, picked up five.

Baumann and McKenzie Lyman each had 22 kills on the day while Lyman also had 12 blocks.

The Trojans moved on to take down a tough Galesburg squad to advance to the finals. Sydney Burnett stepped in for a big run in game one that ended up 25-12 and set the tone for the match. Burnett hit all 59 of her serves on the day, which included five aces.

?Serving was big,? Diers said. ?Everybody picked up 2-3 points while they were back there, and, on the day, it was back up where it should be.?

Burnett also had a team-best 47 assists followed by Sami Herman with 33. Dana Diers led the defense with 51 digs and converted on 60-of-73 passes while Rachel Schwarz came up with 34 digs. Erin Thompson totaled 15 kills and fellow sophomore Sydney Howard had nine to add to the Trojans? numbers.

Fairfield will hope to take its momentum into Tuesday?s home SEC match vs. Fort Madison. With a victory, the Trojans can draw even with Keokuk and Mount Pleasant with three conference wins.