Cardinal Forever and VB Pro Erin Fairs Checks In
April 16, 2020 | Women's Volleyball
The Texas Native was a member of the 2015 ACC Championship Team
With the 2020 season unexpectedly ended due to COVID-19, we are checking in with Cardinal Volleyball and our professional players. Today, we touch base with Erin Fairs, a 2015 graduate and a member of the 2015 ACC Championship team. She was named to the All-ACC First Team and an AVCA HM All-American.Â
Q: Where are you right now?
A: I am back from playing professionally in Greece and staying in my apartment in Houston.
Â
Q: You got to see history being made when you drove over from Houston to watch the Cardinals play in Austin with the big upset of No. 2 Texas. What was that like? Â
A: That actually was the first time I was able to see them in person since I graduated because I have been playing professionally overseas and our seasons conflict. It was exciting to see a UofL jersey and awesome to see everybody that I knew from getting recruited, the coaches and the support staff. I am a big Texas girl, having grown up here, but I am always for the underdog. I love when some big names get beaten. I was rooting for my alma mater obviously. It was awesome. I know a bunch of players from Texas and it was an awesome atmosphere to be around. I loved every second of it.
Â
Q: How did you support the Cardinals from the crowd, now that you can't put on a uniform and help them be the Cinderella story?
A: I have known some of those girls who play at Texas just from being a girl who grew up in Texas and also I was with Roxane McVey, our UofL libero when I was there who is living in Houston. We were coaching from the stands and coaching and commentating to each other the whole match. Even before the match, I was saying if the Cards could get past that huge Texas block, they aren't used to playing defense behind the block and then the Cards would have a really good chance to win the match. Their team was really, really big and could put some balls down but if you can possibly get past that block you have a chance of beating them. The Cardinals did exactly that and it was amazing to watch that. The calmness and determination of the team was the most surprising to me. Everybody was just so dialed in and not nervous.
Â
Q: Your team that won the ACC had a lot of upperclassmen whereas the team that beat Texas had a lot of underclassmen, do you see any similarities between the mindsets?
A: I feel like we were a little more rowdy and relied on emotion. Every coach and team has their own thing. We were always super talkative and at each other in a good way when we were out there. They were the opposite with their concentration and faith in the game plan. It works either way it just depends on the dynamic of the team.
Â
Q: What is your best memory from the ACC Championship team?
A: When we played Florida State was one of my favorite memories or the Pitt match. Both of those matches were amazing. I remember the Florida State match as being do or die to win the ACC and we were down in the fourth set by four or five points and they were already at 23 or 24 and we came all the way back and won that set and then won the fifth set. We went crazy, really, really crazy. With Pitt, we were also in the fifth set and by the last points it was a nail-biter for every single point. There are so many wonderful memories but those two matches stick out because we never gave up and got them in the fifth set. It was awesome. It really was.
Â
Q: After your senior year, where did you play pro?
A: After I graduated my first pro team was in Sweden EVS Engelholm and we won the championship there so that was cool. Then Turkey, then Puerto Rico, then Romania and then Italy and finally Greece. I got hurt in Italy last year playing for Consolini Volei. I got hurt near the end of the season, with about three weeks left. I tore my ACL and meniscus. It was in March and then came home and had surgery three weeks later after I tore it. It was one year on April 22. I left Italy a week after it happened and did some prehab stuff and then had surgery. We had some good physical therapists for my rehab, but no one was volleyball specific so to speak. Being at a Division I university like Louisville they know what kind of athlete you are and what you need. A therapist who hasn't played volleyball or been around volleyball makes it a bit harder. They work with athletes all the time but volleyball like every sport, is a little bit different from the others. That part kind of sucked because I wish I could have been with a trainer like at UofL that was sport-specific, but it was still fine. We did hard workouts like we did at UofL but I had to do more volleyball specific stuff like with coaches I know here in Houston.
Â
Q: So then you returned and hooked up with a team in Greece, how was that going?
A: I went there in the middle of January just to be there for the last three or four months of the season, but we had to come home because of the COVID-19 crisis. I was trying to get all the kinks out after having surgery and by the end and the last month before this happened, I was seeming to feel back to normal. So that was good but bad. Randomly, my coach from Louisville got to come and see me right before I came home as she was travelling with her family in Greece on vacation. Anne Kordes knows everybody and was in contact with someone who does tours there and who help European players get college scholarships in the US, she was visiting them and they said I was playing nearby. So it worked out perfectly. She was there and got to see me.
Â
Q: How did you get home when the virus starting shutting down the entire world.
A: It was a mess. The day that the travel ban was announced and close the borders the announcement was at 3 a.m. Greek time so it was a mess. My mom called me in the middle of the night and said pack your stuff, we don't care what is going on volleyball-wise, you are leaving. I was afraid I would get stuck there. The virus wasn't bad in Greece at that point but being stuck there and not being able to get back to the States in who knows how long, was scary. My season was put on hold. The other American, Taylor from Oregon, left the same day.
Â
Q: How are you staying in playing shape?
A: There is nothing in terms of volleyball going on anywhere right now. So no volleyball playing. In my apartment complex we have a six-story garage,  I was running up and down the ramps and working out on my little mat with my speakers playing music. I do circuit training with my weights and bands and since I was rehabbing I still had all the equipment for those workouts. I got a bike when I got home. When you get tired of being quarantined you can get on your bike and go outside and ride for miles.
Â
Q: What did you think when you heard about the suspension of the NCAA tournament and spring sports?
A: I understand the shock. I know the feeling as a pro to have things end abruptly, but in college you don't get those years back and pros can work their way back in. I can only imagine how the seniors felt. I transferred into Louisville for my final year and everything was riding on my final year because I had so much I wanted to accomplish in one year. I can only imagine how those kids felt. With everything going so well, and then to get cut short. I feel so bad for them. I hope that there could be some solution but it sucks to end like that. I hope they can find peace.
Â
Q: How has your game changed since being overseas?
A: I am more crafty. A point is a point. I am known for pounding a ball down and I still do that. But I am making a lot of points on tips or attacks that take legit skill and are hard to do. You learn those things after time playing in the pros. My passing and my ball control in general has gotten better because overseas, you don't get all those subs that you have in NCAA volleyball. You don't have anyone coming in for you when you rotate to the back row. You play all the way around or the other kids will play for you all the way around. After I tore my ACL, I couldn't jump for so long obviously, the first thing I could do for months was passing and ball control, so that has improved much more than before.
Â
Q: How will you catch on overseas again?
A: This happened close to the end of everybody's season, so there was a month maximum left for anyone over there and now basically it will be the off season. The season starts back up in August if you want to do a long season or a shorter season, that would start in January. Before this happened, I thought I only wanted to do short season from then on to be home more often. I have been overseas for five years and while I was always homesick and as I get older I want to be home more. I do plan to play from January to April ideally. I will be training and coaching until everything starts back up again. And work on figuring out what I want to do after pro volleyball.
Â
Q: Where are you right now?
A: I am back from playing professionally in Greece and staying in my apartment in Houston.
Â
Q: You got to see history being made when you drove over from Houston to watch the Cardinals play in Austin with the big upset of No. 2 Texas. What was that like? Â
A: That actually was the first time I was able to see them in person since I graduated because I have been playing professionally overseas and our seasons conflict. It was exciting to see a UofL jersey and awesome to see everybody that I knew from getting recruited, the coaches and the support staff. I am a big Texas girl, having grown up here, but I am always for the underdog. I love when some big names get beaten. I was rooting for my alma mater obviously. It was awesome. I know a bunch of players from Texas and it was an awesome atmosphere to be around. I loved every second of it.
Â
Q: How did you support the Cardinals from the crowd, now that you can't put on a uniform and help them be the Cinderella story?
A: I have known some of those girls who play at Texas just from being a girl who grew up in Texas and also I was with Roxane McVey, our UofL libero when I was there who is living in Houston. We were coaching from the stands and coaching and commentating to each other the whole match. Even before the match, I was saying if the Cards could get past that huge Texas block, they aren't used to playing defense behind the block and then the Cards would have a really good chance to win the match. Their team was really, really big and could put some balls down but if you can possibly get past that block you have a chance of beating them. The Cardinals did exactly that and it was amazing to watch that. The calmness and determination of the team was the most surprising to me. Everybody was just so dialed in and not nervous.
Â
Q: Your team that won the ACC had a lot of upperclassmen whereas the team that beat Texas had a lot of underclassmen, do you see any similarities between the mindsets?
A: I feel like we were a little more rowdy and relied on emotion. Every coach and team has their own thing. We were always super talkative and at each other in a good way when we were out there. They were the opposite with their concentration and faith in the game plan. It works either way it just depends on the dynamic of the team.
Â
Q: What is your best memory from the ACC Championship team?
A: When we played Florida State was one of my favorite memories or the Pitt match. Both of those matches were amazing. I remember the Florida State match as being do or die to win the ACC and we were down in the fourth set by four or five points and they were already at 23 or 24 and we came all the way back and won that set and then won the fifth set. We went crazy, really, really crazy. With Pitt, we were also in the fifth set and by the last points it was a nail-biter for every single point. There are so many wonderful memories but those two matches stick out because we never gave up and got them in the fifth set. It was awesome. It really was.
Â
Q: After your senior year, where did you play pro?
A: After I graduated my first pro team was in Sweden EVS Engelholm and we won the championship there so that was cool. Then Turkey, then Puerto Rico, then Romania and then Italy and finally Greece. I got hurt in Italy last year playing for Consolini Volei. I got hurt near the end of the season, with about three weeks left. I tore my ACL and meniscus. It was in March and then came home and had surgery three weeks later after I tore it. It was one year on April 22. I left Italy a week after it happened and did some prehab stuff and then had surgery. We had some good physical therapists for my rehab, but no one was volleyball specific so to speak. Being at a Division I university like Louisville they know what kind of athlete you are and what you need. A therapist who hasn't played volleyball or been around volleyball makes it a bit harder. They work with athletes all the time but volleyball like every sport, is a little bit different from the others. That part kind of sucked because I wish I could have been with a trainer like at UofL that was sport-specific, but it was still fine. We did hard workouts like we did at UofL but I had to do more volleyball specific stuff like with coaches I know here in Houston.
Â
Q: So then you returned and hooked up with a team in Greece, how was that going?
A: I went there in the middle of January just to be there for the last three or four months of the season, but we had to come home because of the COVID-19 crisis. I was trying to get all the kinks out after having surgery and by the end and the last month before this happened, I was seeming to feel back to normal. So that was good but bad. Randomly, my coach from Louisville got to come and see me right before I came home as she was travelling with her family in Greece on vacation. Anne Kordes knows everybody and was in contact with someone who does tours there and who help European players get college scholarships in the US, she was visiting them and they said I was playing nearby. So it worked out perfectly. She was there and got to see me.
Â
Q: How did you get home when the virus starting shutting down the entire world.
A: It was a mess. The day that the travel ban was announced and close the borders the announcement was at 3 a.m. Greek time so it was a mess. My mom called me in the middle of the night and said pack your stuff, we don't care what is going on volleyball-wise, you are leaving. I was afraid I would get stuck there. The virus wasn't bad in Greece at that point but being stuck there and not being able to get back to the States in who knows how long, was scary. My season was put on hold. The other American, Taylor from Oregon, left the same day.
Â
Q: How are you staying in playing shape?
A: There is nothing in terms of volleyball going on anywhere right now. So no volleyball playing. In my apartment complex we have a six-story garage,  I was running up and down the ramps and working out on my little mat with my speakers playing music. I do circuit training with my weights and bands and since I was rehabbing I still had all the equipment for those workouts. I got a bike when I got home. When you get tired of being quarantined you can get on your bike and go outside and ride for miles.
Â
Q: What did you think when you heard about the suspension of the NCAA tournament and spring sports?
A: I understand the shock. I know the feeling as a pro to have things end abruptly, but in college you don't get those years back and pros can work their way back in. I can only imagine how the seniors felt. I transferred into Louisville for my final year and everything was riding on my final year because I had so much I wanted to accomplish in one year. I can only imagine how those kids felt. With everything going so well, and then to get cut short. I feel so bad for them. I hope that there could be some solution but it sucks to end like that. I hope they can find peace.
Â
Q: How has your game changed since being overseas?
A: I am more crafty. A point is a point. I am known for pounding a ball down and I still do that. But I am making a lot of points on tips or attacks that take legit skill and are hard to do. You learn those things after time playing in the pros. My passing and my ball control in general has gotten better because overseas, you don't get all those subs that you have in NCAA volleyball. You don't have anyone coming in for you when you rotate to the back row. You play all the way around or the other kids will play for you all the way around. After I tore my ACL, I couldn't jump for so long obviously, the first thing I could do for months was passing and ball control, so that has improved much more than before.
Â
Q: How will you catch on overseas again?
A: This happened close to the end of everybody's season, so there was a month maximum left for anyone over there and now basically it will be the off season. The season starts back up in August if you want to do a long season or a shorter season, that would start in January. Before this happened, I thought I only wanted to do short season from then on to be home more often. I have been overseas for five years and while I was always homesick and as I get older I want to be home more. I do plan to play from January to April ideally. I will be training and coaching until everything starts back up again. And work on figuring out what I want to do after pro volleyball.
Â
VB: Dan Meske, Chloe Chicoine, Payton Petersen Postgame vs. Marquette
Sunday, December 07
VB: Highlights vs Marquette
Sunday, December 07
VB: Highlights vs Loyola Chicago
Saturday, December 06
VB: Dan Meske, Cara Cresse, Payton Petersen Postgame Presser vs. Loyola Chicago
Saturday, December 06
