Regional brackets were released yesterday for high school volleyball, and both Fairfield and Pekin will face challenging rematches against teams that defeated them earlier this season.
Class 3A Region 7: Fairfield vs. West Liberty
The Fairfield Trojans (17-10) will travel to West Liberty on Tuesday, October 21st, to take on the Comets (21-12) in their regional opener. The two teams previously met at the Williamsburg Tournament on September 13th, where Fairfield fell 1–2 in the best-of-three match with set scores of 21–14, 18–21, and 9–15.
Natalie Steele led the offensive attack with 7 kills, while Elyse Setterstrom contributed 6 kills. Faith Jones orchestrated the offense with 20 assists, and the team maintained excellent serving with 93.3% efficiency. Defensively, Isabel McCready anchored the back row with 17 digs, while Lexi Mast and Mallory Wigle each added 6 digs. However, 11 team kill errors proved costly in the loss.
“We have some familiar teams in the bracket. We’ve seen West Liberty this year already,” said Fairfield Head Coach Vicki Rebling. “We hope to be playing at our best this time of year, and it’s a good match-up overall. We have opportunities to do well with our remaining regular season matches and want to take the momentum into the postseason.”
If Fairfield advances past West Liberty, the Trojans will face either Mid-Prairie—the top seed in the bracket and ranked seventh in Class 3A—or Davis County in the next round.
Class 1A Region 2: Pekin vs. Winfield-Mt. Union
The Pekin Panthers (11-14) will travel to Winfield-Mt. Union to face the Wolves (14-10) in their regional opener on Monday, October 20th. The teams last met in late September in a conference matchup where Pekin managed to take one set but fell 1–3 in the best-of-five contest, with set scores of 14–25, 12–25, 25–18, and 10–25.
In that previous meeting, Carlie Gambell led the Panthers with 11 assists, 5 kills, and 1 block, while Paislee Coleman contributed 10 kills, 1 block, and 9 digs. Katelynn Schultz and Ezra Parsons each recorded 5 digs, and Taylor Moore added 3 blocks. The Panthers struggled with 21 team kill errors in the match.
Should Pekin upset Winfield-Mt. Union, the Panthers would advance to face top-seeded Holy Trinity Catholic, ranked second in Class 1A with an impressive 29–2 record.
Looking Ahead
Both local teams face uphill battles in their regional openers, but the familiarity with their opponents could work to their advantage. With the regular season winding down, both squads will look to build momentum and flip the script when it matters most in postseason play.
