Fairfield puts away Chiefs to claim conference title

KEOKUK ? Suspense ... Who needs it?

Certainly not the Fairfield volleyball team, who won the Southeast Conference title outright with its seventh conference win in as many tries Tuesday night in Keokuk.

The Trojans (25-9, 7-0 SEC) unceremoniously downed the Chiefs by scores of 25-18, 23-25, 25-13 and 25-19 on Keokuk?s court.

?You?ve got to be happy for the kids,? said Fairfield head coach Nancy Diers. ?It?s one of their goals that they have for the season, to bring back the conference championship to Fairfield after we got second last year to Mount Pleasant.?

Prior to last season?s second-place finish, Fairfield had won four conference titles in a row.

One of the usual weapons for Fairfield on Tuesday was its serve, illustrated by a season-high 20 aces in the match. Trojans who led behind the service line were Taylor Neil, who was 22-of-23 serving with an ample eight aces, and Sidney Baumann, who went 19-of-21 serving with five aces.

?It was one of [Neil?s] better serving nights, and on a night where Sidney was struggling a little bit with her hitting and passing, she did a terrific job when she got back to that service line and kept the pressure on Keokuk,? Diers said.

Fairfield used their solid serving to build a 19-14 lead in the first set before breezing to a 25-18 win in game one.

The SEC champs ran into a bit of a snag in game two and were forced to play catch-up for the majority of the set until Neil?s serve and timely hitting gave Fairfield four straight points and an 18-16 lead. The Trojans built a 22-17 lead on Tori Ogden?s serve but couldn?t hold on, as the Chiefs scored eight of the next nine points to take a 25-23 win.

?It was one of those games where we just didn?t take care of the ball the way it needed to be,? said Diers.

Fairfield bounced back in game three on the serve of Baumann, who helped her team to a 6-0 lead. The Trojans never looked back in the set, stretching their lead out to 20-9 before pushing to the end to take the game 25-13.

But Keokuk refused to go away easily in the final set, taking their own 6-0 lead and holding it until the Trojans came back for a 12-all tie. A few decent-sized service runs by both teams resulted in a 20-18 lead for Fairfield before the Trojans went on one final run to clinch the match at 25-19.

?Last night Keokuk was a much improved team,? said Diers. ?They kept a lot of things alive. They hit better than what they did earlier in the season when we played them. To our kids credit they kept the ball alive defensively, and I thought our weapons on the front row were a little bit stronger than their weapons on their front row.?

Along the front row, Ogden went 32-of-33 on attacks with 10 kills. McKenzie Lyman was right behind with eight, and Erin Thompson slammed down seven. Marisa Repp had two blocks.

Ogden added to her complete performance with a team-high 31 digs. Taylor Silvers came through with 22 digs, and Sydney Howard and Baumann added 18 and 17 digs, respectively.

Setters Sydney Burnett and Neil also had strong performances, providing the Trojan offense with 15 digs apiece.

?Overall a great win for our kids,? Diers added. ?Playing down in Keokuk is never an easy place to go and play.?

Fairfield, which also carries a 59-23 record in games played, will wrap up the regular season Thursday with Parents and Senior Night against Fort Madison. The Trojans will then host Oskaloosa in the first round of do-or-die regional volleyball Monday.

FAIRFIELD ? 25, 23, 25, 25

KEOKUK ? 18, 25, 13, 19

DIGS ? (FF) Ogden 31, Silvers 22, Howard 18, Baumann 17, Burnett 15, Neil 11, Lyman 8, Thompson 4, Williams 1

SERVING ? (FF) Neil 22-23 (8), Baumann 19-21 (5), Ogden 20-21 (3), Silvers 12-12 (2), Howard 9-11 (1), Burnett 8-9 (1)

ATTACKS ? (FF) Ogden 32-33 (10), Lyman 23-29 (8), Thompson 27-32 (7), Howard 36-40 (6), Repp 13-15 (4), Baumann 12-15 (2), Ledger 2-2 (1), Silvers 5-6, Neil 1-1, Burnett 1-1

ASSISTS ? (FF) Neil 15, Burnett 15, Thompson 2, Lyman 1, Baumann 1

BLOCKS (solo-asst-tot) ? Repp 2-0-2, Howard 0-1-1

SERVE RECEIVE ? Howard 13-20, Baumann 12-18, Ogden 10-16, Silvers 6-11, Williams 2-5, Burnett 1-1, Repp 0-1