SAN ANTONIO – The 21st-ranked Trinity University volleyball team swept Schreiner University (TX) 3-0 (25-17, 25-13, 25-18) in a Thursday night Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference match.
The Tigers (14-6, 7-1) improved to 45-0 all-time against the Mountaineers, thanks to a .312 team hitting percentage, 8.0 team blocks, and 64 total digs. Trinity also held Schreiner under .100 hitting for the match, forcing 18 attack errors.
Marissa Drange (Boerne, Texas / Champion) led Trinity with eight kills in the short match, hitting .444 with no errors on 18 attempts.
Maddie Fate (New York, N.Y. / Croton Harmon) was right on her teammate's heels with seven kills but did hit .500 to lead the Tiger team. Fate and
Sophia Burke (Houston, Texas / Jersey Village) led Trinity with three blocks each, while three other Tigers had two: Drange,
Courtney Pope (New Braunfels, Texas / Canyon), and
Taylor Starr (Southlake, Texas / Carroll). Starr and
Connelley McWilliams (Austin, Texas / St. Michael's) both had six kills and hit .455, with Pope adding five kills of her own.
Setters
Jozie Dhayer (Houston, Texas / Summer Creek) and
Kendall DeRivel (Westlake Village, Calif. / Viewpoint) were solid as usual for the Tigers. DeRivel finished with a match-best 19 assists to go with eight digs, while Dhayer had 15 assists and five digs. Libero
Jenna Rodriguez (San Antonio, Texas / Antonian) came up clutch on defense with 19 of the team's 64 digs in the match.
Annabelle Lanik (Sugar Land, Texas / St. John's) also reached double figures with 11 digs of her own. The duo accounted for nearly two-thirds of Trinity's total digs.
The Rundown
Trinity and Schreiner spent most of the first set in a back-and-forth battle during which neither team was able to build a lead in the early going. The Tigers eased in front by three for their biggest lead at the time, but Schreiner bounced back to tie things up 13-13. The response from the Tigers was to score three straight of its own and
Reagan Whatley (The Woodlands, Texas / The Woodlands) had two kills during that stretch. Schreiner continued to hang in and trailed by just two (18-16) when Trinity caught fire and scored seven of the final eight points to earn the 25-17 win. Fate spread out six kills on eight swings in the set, setting the pace for Trinity's .400 hitting percentage to open the match.
The second set began with Schreiner taking three of the first four points to get off to its strongest start of the night. Trinity managed to tie things up 4-4 but Schreiner was able to get back on track with three straight points and reclaim the advantage. The Tigers broke the streak and then broke the game open by scoring 10 of the next 11 points that included a stretch of eight unanswered points. Drange had three kills to help power the extended run that gave Trinity a 14-8 lead. Two quick Schreiner points turned out to be a minor blip for Trinity, which used two more kills by Drange to rattle off four straight points to take an 18-10 lead. Schreiner got to within six points after that, but the Tigers scored the final six to take the 25-13 win. McWilliams notched a pair of kills during that final run to seal the win. Drange wound up matching Fate's first-set total with six kills of her own in the second and wound up hitting .545 in the game.
Trinity took control with four unanswered points early in the final set and never looked back. The Tigers didn't allow back-to-back points for Schreiner until late in the set. The Mountaineers hung in for the next several points and kept the lead to three points at 10-7, but Trinity put the game out of reach by scoring seven of the next eight points for a 17-8 margin. It was a true team effort as four different Tiger players had kills during the stretch. Schreiner did make one final push with an 8-2 run to cut the lead to just three (20-17), but Trinity scored five of the final six to finish off the match win.
Up Next
Trinity remains at home for another SCAC matchup on Friday evening, facing off against Texas Lutheran University at 6:00 p.m.
