Panthers sweep past Trojans

FAIRFIELD - The Southeast Conference seems to be down this season in its volleyball action, but don't tell that to Mt. Pleasant.

The Panthers took a 3-0 win from Fairfield Tuesday, which seemed unlikely before the match.

'I am not surprised we won, but I am surprised we swept,” Mt. Pleasant head coach David Streeter said. 'The whole conference is struggling right now.”

Burlington is the only team with a record above .500 at 6-4 and three of those wins are against SEC teams. Fort Madison is 2-7, but 2-0 in the league. Mt. Pleasant is now 8-12 and Fairfield is 4-10. Before the match both teams were 1-1 in the league and that record was achieved in almost identical ways with each defeating Washington 3-0 and falling to Fort Madison 3-1.

Tuesday's first set seemed to show how close teams are. The Panthers led 21-18 when a crazy long rally ensued with scrambles, free balls, dives to keep the point alive and awesome hits dug up and returned. A Fairfield hitting error finally ended the rally and Mt. Pleasant went on to a 25-18 win.

'In my mind, our girls are good, but it depends which team shows up,” Streeter said. 'If you see the conference, teams are getting beat by teams that others have already beat.”

The second set was tied 12 times between 4-4 and 19-19. Avery Sutter's tip gave the Panthers an edge at 21-19, prompting a Trojans timeout. Danielle Breen's kill brought Fairfield to within 23-22. Kenna Lamm answered with a cross court smash for MP 24-22. A Macy Rayburn kill for Fairfield and it was 24-23. A tip from Elli Liechty gave the second set to the Pamthers at 25-23.

The third set was tied six times, the last at 8-8, then Fairfield called timeout when it trailed 13-8. The teams played even from that point on with the lead changing from three to seven points and the set ended 25-20.

'We had no energy, no fight, no aggressiveness,” Fairfield head coach Diana Drish said after a long session with her team in the locker room. 'I expect more from my team and we talked about that quite a bit. Painful is a good word to use. We did not play at a level we know we can.”

Passes were often misjudged on the player's jump or the pass was off.

'It was a little of both,” Drish said. 'Our defense did a very nice job, but our offense was not on.”

Kiya Robertson had 14 digs, Danielle Breen 11 and Maddie Jones nine for the Trojans.

The Panthers have spent a lot of practice time to improve their defense last season. It showed with Regan and Ralyn Seeburg diving to keep points alive.

'We have had some extra hustle there and it makes a difference,” Streeter said. 'Our serve receive gets a little lax here and there, but we will work on it.”

Both teams' next scheduled game is Tuesday on the road with Fairfield at Keokuk (3-11) and Mt. Pleasant at Burlington.

'Our hitting was good because we were keeping the ball in and our serving has improved,” Streeter said. 'Kenna and Karsyn Lamm were effective for us on the left side.”