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Washington Evening Journal
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Volleyball season fully underway!
Fairfield wins home triangular, Mid-Prairie, Mt. Pleasant start off hot
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
FAIRFIELD — Fairfield and WACO hit the floors of Fairfield High School for the Trojans’ annual tip off triangular on Thursday, a sure sign that we are now fully engulfed in the 2025 high school volleyball season.
It was the Trojans who stood tall at the end of the night. Fairfield beat WACO 25-14 and 25-21 in a Union area battle, and then finished the night off with a 25-11, 25-18 sweep of Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont.
“I was very proud of all of them on the court,” said Fairfield head coach Vicki Rebling. “They brought a lot of energy tonight, they were excited to play, and they played well together.”
The Trojans were led by Natalie Steele, who finished with six kills against WACO and three against EBF. Leah Helmick had five kills against WACO, and Elyse Setterstrom coled with three against EBF.
Setter Faith Jones finished the night with 12.5 assists. After the 2-0 night, she talked about the Trojans’ team chemistry coming into the new year.
“I love this team so much. We have such good chemistry,” Jones said. “We have so many good hitters, and they can do anything.”
WACO lost its battle with EBF, falling 25-16 in both sets.
“We ran a lot of different rotations, and we played against some good offense,” said WACO head coach Addison Fort. “We're working on our defense, and finding the correct places where we need to be.”
WACO has yet to find a win so far in the young season. Fairfield is 4-2, with those only two losses coming at the hands of a familiar foe, in Mt. Pleasant.
Mt. Pleasant has been off to a red-hot start to its 2025 season. Under new head coach Alicia Schrader, the Panthers are 5-2, getting two wins at the Ottumwa triangular on Thursday night and three more in this weekend’s Grinnell tournament.
The Panthers, who had lost eight of the last 10 matchups in the Highway 34 rivalry, beat Fairfield 21-9 and 22-20 in the first showdown on Saturday, and then knocked the Trojans off in a three-set thriller, taking the third game 15-13 later in the day.
Washington had itself quite the difficult schedule at the Grinnell tournament. The Demons had just one win in five tries, beating Carlisle in a thriller, winning 21-10, 19-21, 15-12.
In that victory, reigning Southeast Conference Player of the Year Leighton Messinger had 13 kills, while Layla Green recorded nine.
And speaking of weekend tournaments, lone Union area state qualifier Mid-Prairie is back in action, and the Golden Hawks are undefeated through eight games to start the year.
Mid-Prairie, ranked No. 4 in Class 2A, went 3-0 at a stacked Mount Vernon quad on Thursday, and then turned around to take gold at the Central Lee tournament on Saturday.
To win the tournament, Mid-Prairie had to beat Union area foe Pekin, and then cool off previously undefeated Burlington. The Grayhounds took the opening set 25-22, but Mid-Prairie won the next two sets 25-16 and 15-7 to pull out the win. Jovi Evans had 13 kills in that victory.
