The Trinity Tiger Volleyball team went 2-0 to finish up the 2024 Trinity Fall Classic, earning victories against both East Texas Baptist University and the College of St. Benedict (MN).

Game 1 - Trinity 3, ETBU 2

In the opening match against ETBU, our Tigers in maroon started strong, completely wiping out ETBU in the first two sets with scores of 25-15 and 25-17. Courtney Pope (New Braunfels, Texas / Canyon) racked up a total of 12 kills within the first two sets.

The ETBU Tigers came out looking for a cat fight in the third set. Both Tiger teams fought to keep the score close, tying the score a total of 12 times. Reaching the end of the third set and the score still being tied, both teams were forced to push past the 25-point mark. Our Trinity Tigers stayed strong and created a back-and-forth point match until the Tigers in blue became victorious in the set, winning 29-27 to avoid the sweep.

Once again in the fourth set, the cat fight continued between the Trinity and ETBU Tigers. Sadly, the Tigers in blue snagged the fourth set from our Maroon Tigers with a narrow 25-22 win to keep the match going.

With the Trinity Tigers and the ETBU Tigers tied 2-2, the fifth and final set commenced. Our Tigers in maroon came out stronger than ever winning the tiebreaker with a score of 15-8. Jozie Dhayer (Houston, Texas / Summer Creek) had a total of 31 set assists in the match, while Kendall DeRivel (Westlake Village, Calif. / Viewpoint) added 28 assists of her own for a wicked 1-2 punch from the Trinity setters. The Trinity Tigers racked up 18 total team blocks in that first match.

Game 2 - Trinity 3, St. Benedict 1

As for the second match, both our Trinity Tigers and St. Benedict Bennies came out strong in the first set. Both teams pushed the score, tying 11 times and pushing past the 25-point barrier once more. The Trinity Tigers were unsuccessful and the Bennies edged past them with the first set win of 27-25. 

The course of the game then changed in the second set when the Trinity Tigers released the beast on the Bennies. Mackenzie Logan (Calgary, Canada / Bishop Caroll) had an absolute kill fest in this set with 11 out of her 37 total for the entire day. That led to the Tigers tying up the score with a 25-21 win in set two.

Just in case Tiger fans needed a sense of déjà vu, Trinity Volleyball ended the third set with the score of 25-21 once again against the Bennies. Jenna Rodriguez (San Antonio, Texas / Antonian), the Trinity Tigers starting Libero, impacted the outcome of the St. Benedicts game with her 24 digs in the match.

In the fourth and final set of tonight's second matchup, the Tigers finally extended a major lead of 16-9 over the Bennies. Maddie Fate (Croton on Hudson, N.Y. / Croton Harmon)
helped hold down the Trinity defense with five of the 14 team blocks.  Finally, the set ended with the second Trinity win of the day and the conclusion of the 2024 Trinity Fall Classic.

Logan was named the Tournament Most Valuable Player and was joined by both Rodriguez and Fate on the All-Tournament Team. 

Up Next

The Tigers will head to St. Louis, Missouri to take on Johns Hopkins on September 6th.