Published: November 02, 2007 01:49 am      

Lady Eagles succumb to China Spring

China Spring brought an arsenal of weapons Thursday night in its Class 3A, Region III Area playoff against Fairfield.

The Lady Cougars had too much power and discipline on offense and gave the Lady Eagles very few opportunities as China Spring (33-5) defeated Fairfield 3-0 (25-20, 25-15, 25-18) at Tiger Gymnasium in Corsicana.

"We ran into a very good team (Thursday)," Fairfield coach Dennis Johnson said. "They had a very good hitter and made very few mistakes. They are the No. 8 team in the state and we haven’t played a team as powerful as that all season."

China Spring’s Karlyn Meyers, who is committed to play next season at Texas Tech, was more than enough for Fairfield to handle.

Meyers had a match-high 17 kills and five blocks and had just one error on 25 attacking attempts to finish with a match-high hitting percentage of .667.

"She played really smart," China Spring coach Stacy Meyers said. "She is a setter by nature and has had some shoulder problems here lately that has caused us to not give her as many sets, but she has a very good eye for opportunity and tonight she took them."

Meyers had five kills in Game 1, but Fairfield (24-14) was able to counter every point China Spring got throughout the game.

The Lady Eagles took a 13-12 lead after Choicetta McMillan hit one of her five kills in the first game, but never led after that.

Meyers counterpart on the China Spring front line, Madison Little, got all three of her kills in Game 1 to pull away from Fairfield.

Little set up a game-winning kill by Stephanie Feliciano to give the Lady Cougars a one game advantage.

Fairfield started Game 2 on back-to-back kills from Caitlin Neal and Mandy Chavers, but that would be the end of the Lady Eagles offense.

Meyers started a 10-1 run as she grabbed three of her five kills in Game 2 to build a comfortable Lady Cougars lead.

The Lady Eagles trailed by as many as 11 points in the game and Meyers did her part with two kills in the final two points to give China Spring a 2-0 lead.

"We started a little slow in the first game due to nerves, but we got better with our passing in the second game and played smart offense," Stacy Meyers said.

Fairfield kept Game 3 close and held a two-point lead before Meyers took over on the front line.

Meyers had back-to-back kills to retake the lead for China Spring and then added five more in the final 15 points to secure the win for the Lady Cougars.

After the match a disappointed Lady Eagles team quickly exited the floor at Tiger Gymnasium.

"I told them that I was very proud of them and that the majority of teams in our region didn’t even make the playoffs," Johnson said of his post-match speech. "We have a good nucleus of players coming back next season and I am very optimistic about our chances of a return to the playoffs."

Notes: McMillan and Neal led the Lady Eagles with 10 kills each while libero Shelby Bayless was the team’s leader defensively with 12 digs… Fairfield had a total of 26 kills for the match, but also had 26 attacking errors… The Lady Eagles had just five blocks solo blocks coming from McMillan, Courtney Nelson and Neal… This was Fairfield’s first playoff appearance in five years.