Trojans tally three wins Saturday at Centerville Tournament

CENTERVILLE ? In the final Saturday tournament of the season, Fairfield ripped through small school competition in pool play ? Moravia, Davis Country and Seymour ? before falling to Centerville at its home tournament.

The Centerville result is Fairfield?s second loss this season to the team the Trojans are likely to meet in the second round of regional play. However, that do-or-die match scheduled for Oct. 29 ? assuming Fairfield can get past Keokuk and the Redettes beat Fort Madison ? will be on the Trojans? home court.

?Centerville has a nice team. But I think we have a nice team,? said head coach Nancy Diers. ?They have our number right now and we have to get over that mental block.?

To begin the day Saturday, Fairfield eased its way to a 21-8, 21-8 victory over Moravia. The Trojans spread kills around as six players racked up at least two led by four from freshman Sidney Baumann. In addition, Fairfield only missed on one serve the entire match to help keep the ball on Moravia?s side.

?We didn?t know much about Moravia coming in, but you don?t know what you?re getting into for the day, so it was a nice start at 9:30 in the morning,? Diers said.

However, the good start was flipped upside down on Fairfield heading into the second match vs. Davis County. The Mustangs posted a 21-9 win against a sluggish Fairfield team to take a 1-0 lead in the match.

?It looked like we thought we were still playing Moravia in the sense that the ball wasn?t going to come back over the net. After game one, the kids were a little upset with each other and just not playing well,? said Diers. ? But we regrouped, and it was a nice way to come back and avenge a loss from earlier in the season.?

Fairfield strung together wins by scores 21-15, 15-8 to take the match and move to 2-0 on the day. Meredith Flattery led the way with eight kills and Baumann had three of Fairfield?s seven blocks ? a good sign according to Diers. Tori Ogden tallied six more kills and Heather Mason chipped in a team high seven digs in the win.

In the match against Seymour to wrap up pool play, Tyler Emry racked up seven service aces to push Fairfield to another win. Emry served the Trojans from a 13-7 lead all the way to 20-7 in game two to help Fairfield win the match 21-13, 21-8. Emry also led Fairfield with 11 assists and McKenzie Lyman put down a team high four kills in the victory.

The win set Fairfield up for the semifinal clash with Centerville.

?We had played three in a row at that point to keep up with the other pool, but we took a little break before Centerville, which we probably shouldn?t have,? Diers said.

Fairfield squeezed out a win in game one, but were soon derailed in games two and three to lose the match 23-25, 25-11, 15-3.

?We came out a little flat but we were able to get game one so I thought it was a good start and maybe we have some momentum,? said Diers. ?Then, it just kind of fell apart and we went back to how we played in the first game against Davis County thinking somebody else was going to do your job.?

The loss ended the Trojans? day and moves Fairfield to 18-12 on the year.

?The end of the day just kind of ended with a bad taste,? Diers added. ?We played alright up to the end to get three victories, but we didn?t end up in the championship so it?s back to the drawing board.?

With two conference matches remaining this week, Fairfield will wrap up the regular season before beginning regional play next Monday. Fairfield?s opponent Tuesday, Keokuk, is also who they will meet in the opening round game of the tournament.

Trojan freshman team takes first place

The Fairfield freshman volleyball team claimed first place at the Centerville tournament with wins against Davis County (21-5, 21-15), Centerville (21-13, 21-18) and Kirksville, MO (21-2, 21-4).

Katie Anderson led the Trojan charge with 15 kills helped out by 13 assists apiece by Courtney Laux and Sydney Howard. Howard and Ashley Manning also put down 10 service aces for Trojan points. Manning also led Fairfield with 21 digs.