SAN ANTONIO – The 12th-ranked Tiger volleyball team finished off its Trinity Fall Classic tournament with a pair of victories to finish the weekend 4-0 and win the tournament.
Trinity (8-3) began the day by sweeping Whittier College (CA) 3-0 (25-23, 25-13, 25-9) ahead of the tournament finale that saw the Tigers face off with 13th-ranked MIT. After dropping the opening set 26-24, Trinity won three straight sets (25-16, 25-17, 25-19) to take the victory.
Nadia Kern (El Paso, Texas / Montwood) was named the Trinity Fall Classic Tournament MVP for her performances over the past two days, while
Marisa Amarino (Calabasas, Calif. / Notre Dame Prep) and
Mackenzie Logan (Calgary, Canada / Bishop Carroll) were both also named to the All-Tournament Team.
Match One Recap
The opening set was close from start to finish as neither team led by more than three points the entire way. With the set knotted up at 23-23, the Tigers got back-to-back kills from
Brette Thornton (Rockwall, Texas / Rockwall) and
Marissa Drange (Boerne, Texas / Champion) to put the home team in front 1-0.
Things got progressively better for Trinity after that, as the Tigers opened with a 10-5 lead early in the second set. After the Poets snuck in two points to get within striking distance, the Tigers rattled off four straight points to double up Whittier again at 14-7. Trinity's lead was never less than five the rest of the way and a 5-0 spurt at the end finishing things off with a 12-point final margin.
Trinity bested Whittier's 3-0 start to the third set with four straight points of its own. The Poets broke up the streak with a kill to make it 4-4, but the Tigers outscored Whittier 21-5 the rest of the way to finish off the sweep. That included three aces in the final five points by Trinity to close out the win.
The Tigers posted a team hitting percentage of .295 in the match as 16 different players saw action in the sweep. Thornton and
Courtney Pope (New Braunfels, Texas / Canyon) led Trinity with seven kills each, while Pope also led the team with seven blocks in the match. Thornton also added five blocks of her own.
Setters
Jozie Dhayer (Houston, Texas / Summer Creek) and Amarino tallied 28 total assists in the match, with Dhayer leading the way at 17. Kern finished with a team-leading eight digs to go with a pair of assists, while
Jenna Rodriguez (San Antonio, Texas / Antonian) had a team-high three aces along with seven digs.
Match Two Recap
The final match of the weekend was an instant classic as the two nationally-ranked opponents battled it out to the bitter end. Neither team scored consecutive points until Trinity had a run of three to take a 10-8 lead in the early going. That was also the largest lead until the Tigers used a 6-1 run to ease in front 18-15 midway through. The Trinity lead was still three when MIT scored three in a row to tie things up 22-all. The Tigers had the first chance at set point with a 24-23 lead, but the Engineers finished off the opener with three straight points to take the 1-0 advantage.
The Trinity team had a memory like a goldfish, though, and quickly put the first set behind them. The Tigers broke a 7-7 tie with three unanswered points and held onto the lead the rest of the way. MIT made its way to a 13-15 deficit halfway through, but Trinity scored 10 of the final 13 points – including the final five points in a row to knot things up 1-1 in the match.
The Tigers came out hot early in set three to force an early MIT timeout. The Engineers were able to get back to level at 6-6 with a 3-0 run of their own and the race for the pivotal third set was on. Trinity broke a 9-9 tie with four unanswered points, but MIT scored four of the next five to pull within one. Logan powered the answer by Trinity, scoring three straight kills as part of a 5-0 Tiger run to make it a 19-13 lead. Even through MIT broke up the streak, the Tigers were not finished. Trinity wound up with a total run of 8-1 to take an eight-point (22-14) advantage. The teams traded scores down the stretch, but Trinity took the final two and maintained the eight-point margin in the set and 2-1 lead in the match.
Any hopes for a quick start by MIT were squashed almost immediately by five straight Trinity points and a 5-1 Tiger lead. The Engineers fought back, though, and took a brief 10-9 lead to force a timeout for Trinity. After the break, the Tigers rattled off another 5-0 run to regain control of the set with a 10-14 lead. MIT clawed back again to tie things up 16-16, but Trinity never fell behind as the Engineers committed three straight errors to hand the lead back to the Tigers. The final rally for MIT brought the visitors within one point at 18-19, but Trinity scored six of the final seven points – including four straight at the end – to finish off a 4-0 weekend.
Logan finished the match with a career-high 17 kills to lead the team, hitting .333 in the match.
Maddie Fate (Croton on Hudson, N.Y. / Croton Harmon) had 11 kills to go with a .588 hitting percentage. Fate and Thornton had five blocks each to pace 11.0 total team blocks for the Tigers.
Amarino and Dhayer both topped 20 assists in the match, with Dhayer picking up 22 and Amarino leading the way with 27. Kern and Rodriguez both reached double figures in digs, tallying 10 and 13, respectively.
Up Next
The next phase of the schedule for Trinity begins next weekend as the Tigers open up Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play in Georgetown, Texas. Trinity faces the University of St. Thomas at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 23, followed by a matchup against weekend hosts Southwestern University Saturday night at 6:00 p.m. Trinity will finish the weekend against defending SCAC Champion Texas Lutheran University on Sunday (9/24) at 12:15 p.m.
