Mistakes cost Fairborn in loss at WC

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WEST CARROLLTON — The old cliche “when it rains, it pours” has never been more true for the Fairborn girls volleyball team.

Already down some players due to injury, the Skyhawks lost another one during warm-ups at winless West Carrollton Monday when Grace Akers was hit in the side of the face with a ball. After a quick check by the trainer, she was ruled out.

That forced Coach Beatriz Ortega-Estrada to again shuffle her rotation, and while she didn’t use that as an excuse, it didn’t help as the Skyhawks lost, 10-25, 16-25, 25-22, 10-25, in a Miami Valley League Valley Division match.

“I think a lot of it was communication errors and offense errors,” Ortega-Estrada said. “Our defense wasn’t super solid, but it was solid enough that we could get offense from it.”

Fairborn (4-8 overall and in the MVL) did get some offense, just not enough. LeeAnn Williams had 11 kills to go with eight digs, and four aces, while Katie Heider had 21 assists and eight digs. Meagan Thompson had 12 digs and five kills, while libero Samantha Hart moved to the middle but still managed 17 digs and three kills.

The Pirates (1-11 overall and MVL) jumped out to a quick 8-4 lead it the first set, forcing a Fairborn timeout and cruised from there. The second set was more competitive, but West Carrollton methodically built a 22-15 lead to force another Fairborn timeout.

The third set resembled what Fairborn was capable of doing, leading early and forcing a WC timeout up 22-19. Fairborn called a timeout up 24-22 and then got the next point to avoid the sweep.

The Skyhawks hung tough in the fourth set, falling down 12-8 before taking a timeout. But they would record just two more points.

Fairborn was scheduled to play at Troy tonight and then host Stebbins Thursday before closing the regular season with a home match against Tippecanoe Monday, Sept. 28, road matches at Butler Tuesday, Sept. 29 and Piqua Thursday, Oct. 1 and then a home match against Xenia Monday, Oct. 5, according to the MVL website.

The sectional tournament is slated to begin Oct. 19.

That should be enough time for Skyhawks to get healthy. But for now, Ortega-Estrada will need to make some slick lineup decisions. Fairborn began the season with 11 players and four are out.

“It puts me in a scenario … just have to play around with some rotations,” she said. “We have a lot of talent.”

And she’s hoping come tournament time Fairborn will have a chance to display that.

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By Scott Halasz

[email protected]

Contact Scott Halasz at 937-502-4507.

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