Bittersweet 16 For Lady Mules; Season Ends In Sectional Loss

Sweet 16 runs are typically, well, pretty sweet. Only, the Fairfield Lady Mules had expectations for higher things this year, making their Sectional championship loss Wednesday more bitter than sweet. Making it worse was the loss came against a conference rival they beat twice in the regular season, as the Carmi Lady Bulldogs advanced to their first Super Sectional ever with a 17-25, 25, 25-19, 25-19 win over Fairfield in the Pinckneyville Sectional championship.

“It just sucks. It is tough. Most teams would love to have back-to-back Sweet 16s, but we thought we had the year set up to break through to State. If we played that team another night, it may happen, but they were really good tonight,” Fairfield coach Chet Snyder admitted after the loss. “The last two years, we have lost right at the wire, going to three, to go to that Elite Eight. We have tasted it before, we have been there twice and we want to get back to it. I just wanted to get this senior class to State really bad.”

While Fairfield had beaten Carmi twice, they knew not to overlook them. The Bulldogs had pushed Fairfield to the brink in their first matchup, taking them three sets and starting a string of games that earned the Lady Mules the Cardiac Kids moniker. While Fairfield easily handled them on Fairfield’s Senior Night, Carmi still came into the Sectional championship with 31 wins

The first set looked like the night would go more the way of the second meeting, with Fairfield cruising to an easy 25-17 win. The final was closer than the set was, as Fairfield rode a 12-3 run toa n 18-7 lead. Fairfield scored four in a row in one stretch and six in a row in another, while never allowing Carmi to score more than two in a row until a late stretch. After Fairfield got to set point at 24-13, Carmi scored four straight before a missed serve ended the set. It was the Bulldog’s fifth missed serve of the set.

“We came out playing really well, just exactly like I wanted and got things rolling. We gave them a little bit of momentum there at the end of the first set. We had them down 24-13 and let them get to 17,” Snyder said.
“Their service game was very weak the first set. They missed several (five). We did not miss any the first set.”

Emersyn Robbins finished the set with seven kills despite being the one who served the six point run.

The second set was going fine for Fairfield in the early going. They took an 8-6 lead with three more early kills by Robbins. Kenzie Turner added a kill and a block from her middle spot. But they did not shake Carmi. They also missed two of their own serves, missing their chance to extend runs of three and two points.

Fairfield led 11-9 after kills from Gracie Atwood and Rylee Edwards, but then Carmi sophomore Caroline Simmons got on track. She put down three straight kills, the first on a very questionable net violation call.

That spurt started a 13-3 run by Carmi, as they got their outside hitters rolling. It was Simmons early and then Carmi’s lone senior, Mara Serafini, late. Once the wheels fell off for Fairfield, they never got going again. Serafini had four kills in the final six Carmi points and they won 25-19 to force a third set.

Fairfield has had their backs against the wall several times of late, and each time showed they could play with resiliency under pressure. That did not happen in the third set, as they fell behind gib early. Carmi scored six in a row for a 10-5 lead, and went up by as many as many as seven at 17-10.

Fairfield rallied with five straight points served by Cori Sutton. After pulling within two, they started trading 1-for-2s with Carmi, falling behind by more at 23-19. Serafini added three more kills in that stretch.

After Robbin’s 20^th kill of the night had gotten them within four at 23-19, Fairfield put an attack into the net for match point and then Simmons got her 18^th kill of the night to end the match and set off a furious celebration from the underdogs.

Carmi’s outside hitters combined for 30 kills on the night, with Serafini adding 12 to Simmons’ 18.

“Their outsides got hot and we could not stop them. We knew Simmons would get hot at some point, but Serafini just had a special night for them,” Snyder said.

The loss end the Lady Mule volleyball careers of four seniors—Robbins, Edwars, Mabry Ellis and Lainie Clark, a group that won conference all four years of their career and advanced to the Sweet 16 twice.

Snyder spoke about each senior after the heartbreaking loss.

“Mabry is going to go down as one of the most improved confidence kids. She has grown and became a good libero and a good leader for us. Her improvement from junior to senior year with Lucy (Britt) gone was huge.”

“Rylee is an overcomer in life. She lost her dad at a young age and she fights and fights. I love her competitive spirit. Every coach I talk to loves watching Rylee play the game.”

“Lainie just said some really good words in the locker room about how she has seen in herself how much she has grown with confidence in our program. When you have a high school kid realizing that at an early age, most kids just don’t see that. She has been a joy to coach.”

“When you start coaching, you don’t know that you will ever get to coach a girl like Emersyn. She is second all time in IHSA history in kills and is just a special, special leader,” Snyder concluded.

Fairfield finishes their season with a 35-4 record, the second most wins in school history. They won the Fairfield Kickoff Tournament, the Lady Tiger Classic and the Lady Mule Invitational tournaments. They also won conference for their sixth straight season.

Carmi def. Fairfield
17-25, 25-19, 25-19

Kills-Attacks-Errors—Emersyn Robbins 20-44-6, Gracie Atwood 7-14-1, Rylee Edwards 4-13-3, Kenzie Turner 2-5, Lainie Clark 1-3, Ava Best 0-2-1, Total 34-81-11.

Assists—Edwards 19, Best 13, Mabry Ellis 1.

Digs—Ellis 15, Robbins 12, Edwards 8, Sutton 5, Atwood 6, Clark 2, Katherine Newman 2.

Serving—Robbins 11-12, Edwards 10-10, Sutton 12-13, Ellis 10-11, Best 9-9, Newman 8-9.

Aces—Ellis 1, Sutton 1.