Trojans take first step to another SEC title

MOUNT PLEASANT ? A slow start was followed by a momentum-shifting win, and by the end of the night, the Fairfield volleyball team was playing like it was out for a conference title.

Business as usual.

The Trojans took their first step towards a fifth-straight Southeast Conference championship with a 16-25, 26-24, 25-20, 25-21 win over Mount Pleasant to open SEC play Thursday night. The win brings Fairfield?s conference winning streak started way back in 2005 to 36-straight matches and into 2010.

?We don?t talk about streaks or anything like that, but we do talk about it being a conference match. We want to make sure we?re prepared and ready to play,? said head coach Nancy Diers. ?If that happens, the win will take care of itself.?

The win was in doubt in the early-going after Mount Pleasant took a 1-0 match lead, but in game two the Trojans fended off game point while trailing 24-23 and seized control of the match. From a 23-23 tie ? the ninth tie of the set ? Tori Ogden put down two kills including the game-winner to win 26-24. Ogden finished the match with a team-high 14 kills.

?We made a lot of mistakes in game one, but our hitters got smarter, and since we passed better, we could set it better,? Diers said. ?We squeaked that second one out. It could?ve gone either way.?

And since it went Fairfield?s way, the momentum followed, and the Trojans burst out to a lead that grew to as big 15-3 in game three. Freshman Sydney Burnett stepped in to put on a serving show that gave Fairfield the big lead, and she finished the match a perfect 27-of-27 from behind the line.

?The first win fueled our will and put a downer on their enthusiasm. It gave our kids a huge sense of accomplishment and a lot of confidence to go on,? said Diers. ?I have to credit our kids for their tenacity and courage to come back after losing that first one.?

On the other bench, it didn?t look quite the same, however.

?Game three was what I?d call an ugly game and want to forget about it,? said Mount Pleasant head coach Lucy Wulfekuhle. ?The girls were getting frustrated, some of them started to shut down and that?s when I had to go to our bench. They really came back though and started to fight.?

Mount Pleasant clawed back to within four points before Fairfield put the game away 25-20 three points after a timeout.

The same fight Mount Pleasant showed at the end of the second set popped up into another comeback effort in game three. The Panthers, down six points early, earned a 19-19 tie before the Trojans once again played like the team wanting to start the SEC season 1-0 and wrenched control.

?We struggled last year with stepping up and finishing and that?s what happened again,? Wulfekuhle said of the Panthers. ?It was our first game of the conference and the girls fought. We?ve just got a lot of stuff to work on.?

Things were a bit different to start the evening, however. Mount Pleasant?s Shiana Keomanivong helped her team to a big lead the Panthers never surrendered in the opening set. Sierra Wyse finished things off to give Mount Pleasant a relatively easy 25-16 victory to win the first game.

?The first game was awesome. They looked good. You could tell they felt good, and they were playing as a team,? said Mt. Pleasant Head Coach Luci Wulfekuhle. ?They were communicating and playing really smart. I thought to myself that it was going to be a really good night.?

But from there, the Trojans pulled together, ?cleaned up their act? according to Diers and wore down Mount Pleasant thanks in large part to another terrific serving effort that is quickly becoming a team strength. Including Burnett?s big night, Fairfield hit 90-of-95 serves as a team in the match. Burnett also led the team with 16 assists, fellow setter Sami Herman chalked up 13 and Dana Diers posted a team-high 17 digs in the back row. Nikia Story added seven kills as part of a front line that is still a work in progress but certainly getting the job done for now.

Fairfield has another week off before hosting Washington for another SEC match next Thursday.

?They?re not going to like it, but we?ve got four good days of practice coming for us,? Diers said. ?There?s some things that just shouldn?t be happening, but we didn?t do anything tonight that wasn?t correctible. It makes you feel good with how they fought back, and if our skill development was perfect right now, I?d be worried about where things would go.?

Mount Pleasant will get the first crack at the Demons with a trip to their place Tuesday before Washington makes its way to Fairfield on Thursday.