Slow day tacks four wins onto Fairfield?s record

BURLINGTON ? With four matches played in the first two weeks of the season, the Fairfield volleyball team jumped head first into its Saturday tournament schedule in Burlington.

The Trojans put in six matches at the Burlington-Notre Dame tournament Saturday and posted a 4-2 record ? both losses coming to Centerville ? but head coach Nancy Diers knows her 14th-ranked team wasn?t at its best.

?All day was just a struggle,? she said. ?The continuity and being fluid just wasn?t there.?

After posting a 4-0 record with some gut wrenching games thrown in the mix, the inexperienced Fairfield squad may not have been ready for the nature of weekend tournaments ? a nature that starts at 9 a.m. A solid Centerville wasted no time showing the young Trojans what to expect in the jam packed days and took it to Fairfield from the get-go. Centerville busted out of the morning gate to take a 21-10 win in game one before taking the match with a 21-19 game two victory.

?There was a little bit of it being 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning and we just may not have been ready to play,? said Diers.

The one players with experience, Meredith Flattery, carried the team as far as she could however. Flattery put down nine kills ? Sidney Baumann?s two was the next closest ? and also totaled four blocks to lead the team.

With an 0-1 record, Fairfield then reeled off four straight victories to set up the championship match against Centerville beginning with a win against Burlington-Notre Dame. After falling 21-15 in game one, the Trojans went the distance in games two and three to escape with wins of 24-22 and 15-13 ? close victories, but victories nonetheless to put the Trojans back on track. Flattery again led the way with nine kills, followed by six from Tori Ogden, and helped out with six assists from Tyler Emery and a team-high 10 digs by Gretchen Granneman.

With the win under their belt, Emery got Fairfield started in a big way in match No. 3 against Columbus serving seven straight points that put the Trojans ahead 8-0. From there, Fairfield never looked back winning 21-8, 21-18 to sweep Columbus and post its second win of the day.

?Columbus had some good hitters, but we were beginning to play a little better, run our plays and read the ball through the net a little better,? Diers said.

The solid play came at just about the right time for Fairfield, especially with Southeast Conference foe Fort Madison coming up next. It would be the first look Fairfield would get the Bloodhounds, who, along with Fairfield, are undefeated in conference play and have the inside track to the regular season title.

?All they needed to know was one word and they new what it was ? ?conference.? We can?t let them think that when we play them in the conference that they have an opportunity,? said Diers. ?The kids played real well, and I think Fort Madison is very balanced this year, they don?t make a lot of mistakes and they keep the ball alive.?

After posting a relatively uneventful 21-17 win in game one, the Trojans made game two even more of runaway, wining 21-12. Dana Diers went 10-10, and her seven-point serving run put the Trojans up 18-11 before putting the game away and taking the victory. Flattery once again gathered nine kills while Emery totaled four service aces in her 11 attempts.

?I was real pleased with our kids? effort in the match and we kind of put it all together,? Diers said. ?Dana?s run kind of showed us that we?re going to live and die by getting the serve, keeping it and putting together little runs.?

In the final round robin match, the Trojans beat Maharishi School ? who has some tournament experience of their own this season - 21-10, 21-11 to move to 4-1 on the day. This time, Flattery did her damage from the base line with three service aces while Diers and Granneman totaled six digs apiece.

With another match with Centerville, who hadn?t lost all day, up next in the championship, Fairfield hoped for to avenge the earlier loss but soon found out the Reds had other plans.

?I thought the kids would respond and think they didn?t play real well earlier, so let?s put it back together and see what we can do,? Diers said. ?We just didn?t do that and Centerville kind of had our number all day. I don?t think we were focused and willing to really push ourselves to the next level.?

Centerville left no doubt who was the better team that day taking 21-9, 21-19 victories to keep an undefeated record and drop the Trojans to 4-2 on the day.

After Saturday, the Trojans improve to 8-2 on the young season and now have an entire week off to prepare for another tournament Saturday in Ottumwa. With as much of a role the tournaments play in determining the success of the season, Diers hopes for a more focused group on Saturdays that are only going to get tougher.

?Not the way we want to go about our season because next Saturday in Ottumwa, we?re going to see Eddyville, we?re going to see Mount Pleasant, we?re going to see Washington ? all team we?ve already beaten,? she said. ?We need to make sure that we come to play on Saturday mornings, which might be one of the tougher challenges of the season.?

Saturday?s action will get underway at 8:30 a.m.