Momentum makes difference in matches

FAIRFIELD - In volleyball, momentum is a huge part of each point, set and the match. That was evident Tuesday in the first round of the Southeast Conference volleyball tournament.

Burlington went 3-0 on the night. Keokuk was 0-2. Fairfield was 1-1. Washington was 0-3. Mount Pleasant was just a point away from being 3-0, but went 2-1. Fort Madison was the recipient of that point and went 2-1.

Fairfield's first match was full of emotion and drama as the Trojans eventually rode their momentum to defeat Fort Madison 10-25, 25-18, 15-13. Danielle Breen's ace was the match-winning point. Fairfield used the momentum of the win to give the Grayhounds all they could handle before BHS prevailed 25-20, 25-22. BHS trailed numerous times in the first set and had a 17-10 lead in the second set before Fairfield came storming back.

'I know that's how the girls can play,” Fairfield head coach Diane Drish said. 'I think they proved it to themselves.”

Mt. Pleasant started the night with a 25-22, 25-18 win over Washington, then went back and forth with Keokuk before winning 25-18, 22-25, 15-13. The Panthers prevailed in that third set but it was a different story in the last match of the night. The Bloodhounds took the match 25-27, 25-22, 17-15. MP took a 14-12 lead in the final set, forcing a FM timeout which halted the Panthers momentum. FM scored the next two points before an Elli Liechty kill gave MP a 15-14 lead, but it was the last point scored for MP.

'If we hit our serves, we shouldn't have been in that third set,” MP coach David Streeter said. 'The positive is we kept fighting even when things didn't go right. We will build on what we did right and work on the things we struggled on.”

Washington nearly got its first match win of the season, but Fort Madison prevailed 19-25, 27-25, 15-8. The Demons led 8-6 in the third set but FM called time to stop the momentum. The Demons never scored again.

'I have been telling my team there are just some small things that we need to fix and now I think those things are tiny things,” WHS coach Lexa Mahr said.

The Demons got a boost from their performance and had BHS on the ropes in the first set, but lost the momentum and the match 25-20, 25-12.

Top-seeded Burlington defeated Keokuk 25-11, 25-16.

The last round of the tournament will be played Tuesday in Mt. Pleasant.

'You can lose a few points in a row and it starts to work on the kids' mental aspect of the game,” Drish said. 'Momentum changes and we started doing everything right.”