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Washington Evening Journal
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Trojans topple Panthers
Fairfield volleyball team beats Mt. Pleasant in 4
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
MT. PLEASANT — The Mt. Pleasant and Fairfield volleyball teams had played twice before Tuesday night’s Southeast Conference clash, with the Panthers winning both. In the final meeting before the SEC tournament, however, it was Fairfield’s turn to make some noise.
The visiting Trojan volleyball team broke a 1-1 tie with two-strong sets to grab a four-set victory over its Highway 34 rivals, picking up an SEC win, 25-19, 20-25, 25-16, 25-19.
“We're getting more confident playing with each other,” said Fairfield head coach Vicki Rebling. “I've had different girls step up at different times, and that's what's great about the team I have.”
The opening set was back and forth the whole way until the last handful of points. Mt. Pleasant had tied the game at 18-18 and seemed to have some momentum, but the Trojans scored seven of the last eight points, clinching the first set when a Panther tip went into the net.
Set 2 was all Panthers early on. Mt. Pleasant led 6-1 after the first seven points, and held an 11-5 lead before Fairfield began to rally.
The Trojans had the game tied at 13-13, and stayed close with the Panthers throughout. A timeout was called with Mt. Pleasant leading 22-20, and the Panthers scored the last three points to win the set 25-20.
The third and fourth sets were ll Fairfield. The Trojns turned it on early in the third, leading by double-digits at one point, before taking it 25-16. In the fourth, Mt. Pleasant rallied back from down 19-11 to cut it to three, but that’s as close as they would get, as Lilly Bergren sent a soft kill to the floor to end the contest.
“I'm not going to lie, they've had our number so far this year,” Rebling said. “We've been talking a lot about that, preparing mentally and working on the little things.”
For Mt. Pleasant, it was a second rivalry loss in a row. The Panthers fell to Washington last week on the road.
“We just got down and couldn't find our momentum back out of some of those ruts,” said Panther head coach Logan Wall. “Sometimes it goes our way, and sometimes it doesn't.”
The game set the stage for the 2024 Southeast Conference volleyball tournament, which begins in Keokuk on Tuesday before going to Burlington one week later.
Fairfield earned the No. 3 seed for the SEC tourney. Mt. Pleasant will come in at No. 4.
