Rivalry Game Goes To Cardinals In Another Three-Set Battle For Mules

The Fairfield Lady Mules have had the NCOE Cardinals’ number in recent years, dominating a one-sided rivalry between the top two teams in the Deep South coach’s volleyball poll. NCOE got them in the Fairfield Kick-Off Tournament last year, but otherwise it has been all Chet Snyder’s Lady Mules in recent years. That included a Fairfield win over Jaclyn Melton’s Cards in this year’s Fairfield tournament.

All that history was in play Tuesday in Norris City, as the Lady Cardinals beat Fairfield, 22-25, 25-19, 25-22 to snap a 12-game winning streak by Fairfield. It was their third loss of the year and the first against a 1A or 2A opponent.

Fairfield fell behind in all three sets on the night. They were able to complete a come-back in the first, but they were unable to go Cardiac Mode in the next two for the loss, looking depleted by the end of the night.

NCOE went up early in the first set with a five-point run for a 8-4 lead. That run included two aces by NCOE’s Kate Vollman, as the Cards started to control the service game.

Fairfield was able to battle back to ties at eight and 12, getting two kills and an ace from Emersyn Robbins, but then NCOE scored six more in a row with Robbins in the back row.

Fairfield’s long runs usually happen when Robbins comes to the front, but they were able to answer quickly while she was in the back, taking 10 of the next 11 points, appearing to rattle the home team, which is led mostly by sophomores and juniors.

Mabry Ellis served six straight points to lead Fairfield to a 22-19 lead. NCOE scored twice, then Fairfield scored twice, with an ace by Cori Sutton following a missed serve from NCOE.

NCOE got back within two at 24-22 but Rylee Edwards ended the set with a block in the middle.

While Fairfield started slow in the first set, they started completely stagnant in the early going in the second set as NCOE scored the first nine points of the set with Hannah Taylor serving. Fairfield had chances to end the run before nine, but had a point waived off with a replay call, and then had an attack error by NCOE negated by a net violation.

That first run was ended by a missed serve, but the Cardinals went up by double digits at 12-2, before another missed serve seemed to get Fairfield going finally. Edwards and Sutton each had two aces and Fairfield stormed back to within three at 14-11. That would be as close as they could get though, with Hayden Knight’s heavy right arm putting down three kills late to keep her squad in front.

That set up a rubber set, where the Cardinals again started strong with four straight points to open, spurred by a block and a kill by junior Hinsley Everett.

Fairfield answered with four in a row, but then fell behind 11-5 as the serve receive game faltered again. The Cardinals had three aces in that surge.

Fairfield rallied again, scoring five in a row as Robbins heated up. She had four kills in an eight-point span and then served two in a row and they were suddenly tied at 14 and Melton was having to call a timeout.

The stoppage worked for the home team, as NCOE never surrendered the lead. Knight, Vollman and then Knight again gave them three straight kills. Another missed serve gave Fairfield a point, but then NCOE took the next three for a 20-15 lead.

Fairfield has shown they can battle back through adversity in recent weeks, and they did so again, scoring five in a row on Ellis’ serve, getting kills from Kenzie Turner, Edwards, Robbins and Gracie Atwood for another tie at 20 and then another timeout from Melton.

Again they came out of the break and scored a point, getting a kill from Everett. They traded attack errors before another kill from Everett. One more missed serve, NCOE’s 10^th of the match, gave Fairfield life again.

Everett hammered home an overpass to move the Cards to match point and then Knight ended the night with a block at the net for the final point, before collapsing to the floor in both exhilaration and exhaustion.

Everett led the Cardinals with 10 kills, while Knight had nine and Vollman had seven. The Cardinals finished with 10 missed serves, but with eight aces as well.

Robbins had 18 more kills for Fairfield, but no other player had more than three for Fairfield.

Fairfield fell to 27-3 with the loss, heading into a final Saturday home tournament to close out the regular season.

NCOE def. Fairfield
22-25, 25-19, 25-22

Kills-Attacks-Errors—Emersyn Robbins 18-36-8, Rylee Edwards 3-7-1, Gracie Atwood 3-23-7, Kenzie Turner 2-8-2, Lainie Clark 1-6-1, Ava Best 0-2, Mabry Ellis 0-1-1, Total 27-83-20.

Assists—Best 14, Edwards 11, Ellis 1.

Block Solo—Edwards 1, Turner 1.

Block Assists—Atwood 1, Turner 1, Robbins 1, Clark 2, Best 1.

Digs—Robbins 16, Ellis 16, Edwars 12, Best 13, Cori Sutton 5, Atwood 3, Turner 3, Clark 5, Katherine Newman 1.

Serving—Ellis 19-19, Best 13-13, Sutton 11-11, Edwards 11-13, Robbins 6-6, Newman 4-4.

Aces—Edwards 3, Sutton 3, Ellis 2, Robbins 1.