Trojans storm back on senior night

FAIRFIELD - The Fairfield volleyball team refused to go down in their last home game of the year on Tuesday night. The Trojans were down 0-2 to Keokuk in a Southeast Conference matchup but raced back with three straight to flip the script and come out on top.

The Trojans dominated the third and fourth sets and came back in to win in the fifth, stealing it 19-25, 22-25, 25-12, 25-15, 15-10.

'It's very exciting, especially sinnce it's our last home game,” said Chloe Stever, one of nine Trojan seniors on the team this year. 'I'm sad that it's our last home game, but it was very exciting to go out like that.”

The Trojans had their hands full early on with Keokuk middle hitter Miracle Ailes. The Chiefs fed the junior all through the first two sets.

After faltering in game one, Fairfield had staged a comeback in set two, erasing a five-point lead in the process. Gracee Lisk converted on back-to-back aces late in the game to tie the game at 18-18, and then brought the Trojans to a 20-18 lead with two more service points. Keokuk, however, scored the next six to grab a 24-20 lead, and held the Trojans off to take a 2-0 lead.

In the third set, though, the Trojan front line began to wear on the Chiefs. Keokuk scored the first five points of the set and kept that momentum going for a 16-6 lead. Fairfield cruised to victory in the third set and from that point on, it was all Trojans.

'I knew once we got that third set that we would get the last two,” said Trojan head coach Diana Drish. 'Just because their excitement was there and their energy was there, and they were ready to play Trojan volleyball.”

Carly Ferrel had four kills in the third set. Olivia Jones had three kills and a block, and then turned it up in the fourth, getting two big blocks on Ailes to help the Trojans force a fifth set.

'She's definitely a good player,” Jones said. 'I knew coming into it that she was going to put up a block, but I think we wore her down there in those last couple sets, and that really helped us out.”

Keokuk showed life early in the fifth set, jumping out to a 3-1 lead. Fairfield, however, scored the next three points and took over from that point. Fairfield held a three-to-four point lead for the majority of the fifth game and closed it out in style with a vicious kill by Ferrel.

'We didn't start out with much fire,” said Stever. 'But as the game went on, we brought more fire and more excitement, and we were able to play to our best ability.”

Jones finished the game with a team-leading 16 kills. Ferrel had 14 and Stever finished with 11. Lily Hoskins dished out 31 assists.

Jones had 10 blocks on the day. Stever finished with seven and Ellie Anderson had five.

Olivia McClaran finished the night with 15 digs. Grace Stever had 12 for second best on the team.

Grace also had a perfect day serving, going 22-22 with two aces. Lisk finished 10-10 with two aces of her own.

Fairfield moved to 4-16 overall and 2-3 in the conference with the win. They'll have a rare weekend off before getting back to action next week.