Trojans fall to Pella

OSKALOOSA ? The Trojans? matchup with Pella on Tuesday night didn?t go as planned, as Fairfield fell 25-14, 25-11 and 25-18 in three sets and had to watch the Dutch celebrate their victory and qualify for the state tournament.

?We have to dwell on all the positives from this season,? said Fairfield head coach Nancy Diers. ?We came back and won in the first round against Oskaloosa and won the conference outright 8-0. Sure, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth to go out how we did, but we won several tournaments; and only four teams that start in August will end the season, will end up winning it all and being happy.

?We just didn?t do the things we needed to do last night.?

Shelby Heston led the Trojans with eight kills on the night. Kara Jeffrey and Molly Ryan each added four kills and Delaney Neil picked up two kills in the loss. Kelsey Roberts collected 16 assists for Fairfield.

Defensively, Kaylee Watson led the way with nine digs, Mackenzi Harwood added eight and Roberts picked up seven. Natalie Angstead had a solo block for Fairfield, while Neil and Roberts each picked up an assisted block.

Mackenzie Flattery, Danae Drish, Brooke McLain and Roberts each had a perfect serving record for Fairfield. Watson picked up the Trojans? only ace.

On the other side of the net, the Dutch operated an efficient offense that featured freshman Emily Holterhaus and junior Katie Vander Molen picking up 11 kills apiece. The two front-line players also accounted for seven blocks combined, shutting down Fairfield?s offense when they could get the ball in position.

?They did a lot of nice stuff and attacked the ball well,? said Diers. ?They passed the ball really well to set up their hitters and we were a little late in our defensive shifts ,which didn?t help. When that happens at this juncture of the season, sometimes you pull it out and win and sometimes you don?t. We wanted to get to that next step and had a great opportunity to, but just fell short.

?Pella played a really nice match and got us away from our game plan.?

Fairfield ends the season 33-4 overall, in Diers? 30th season of coaching, with seven seniors graduating from the program. They are: Mackenzie Flattery (372-388 serving, 53 aces, 202 digs); Mackenzi Harwood (278-312 serving, 35 aces, 194 digs); Emma Kuehl (three assists), Gabrielle Kuehl (8-9 serving, two aces); Delaney Neil (152 kills, 335-358 serving, 45 aces, 102 digs, 48 blocks); Kelsey Roberts (705 assists, 297 digs, 25 blocks, 34 kills, 263-273 serving, 28 aces) and Molly Ryan (133 kills, 50 digs, 73 blocks).

?Our seven seniors have played with us from seventh grade on up,? said Diers. ?They?ve done a tremendous job of coming through and weathering a lot of different storms. It?s a great milestone for me to coach for 30 years. I?m honored and privileged to work with the kids that I have. They?ve done such a tremendous job and performed well each and every year, vying for conference titles and getting in position to advance to state.

?It?s wonderful; it?s a great profession to be able to be with and work with these kids every day.?