DANVILLE, Ky. – The #16 Trinity University volleyball team splits its matches to open the Southern Athletic Association pod at #5 Centre College (KY) on Friday, sweeping Oglethorpe University (GA) 3-0 before falling to hosting Centre 3-1 to close the day.
The Tigers (14-6, 6-4 SAA) won easily over the Stormy Petrels (4-17, 0-11) by scores of 25-14, 25-7, and 25-16 to start the weekend. Trinity also won the opening set against the Colonels (17-1, 8-1) 27-25, but then lost 25-18, 25-22, and 25-12 to split the regular season series with the top team in the standings. The Tigers hit fairly well to start the match against Centre before the percentages dropped in every set, while Centre had two sets during which they hit better than .400. Trinity forced Oglethorpe into a negative percentage in all three sets and peaked at a team hitting percentage of .652 in the second set.
Trinity had 19 different players see action in the win over Oglethorpe and
Lily Long (Glenview, Ill. / New Trier) was the only Tiger to reach double figures in kills, finishing with 11 kills and a .471 hitting percentage.
Angelica Medina (Houston, Texas / Summer Creek) came off the bench with six kills and a .556 hitting percentage in just two games, while
Courtney Pope (New Braunfels, Texas / Canyon) hit .667 with six kills on just nine attacks.
Emma Reeves (Plano, Texas / East) was the only setter to reach double figures and led the team with 11 assists, with
Kendall DeRivel (Westlake Village, Calif. / Viewpoint) and
Anna Verhoff (Milton, Ga. / Milton) picking up nine assists each.
Lauren McCarthy (Corrales, N.M. / Horizon) and
Taylor Starr (Southlake, Texas / Carroll) finished with a total of nine blocks in the match and McCarthy edged out her teammate for the team lead with five.
Brynn Bishop (Indianola, Iowa / Indianola) paced the Tigers with eight digs, followed by Long and DeRivel with seven and six, respectively.
Pope led the team with 15 kills and a .394 hitting percentage in the loss to Centre, while Long notched a double-double of 12 kills and 12 assists. DeRivel finished with a team-leading 16 assists and Verhoff picked up 10 of her own, while Reeves also contributed eight assists.
Annabelle Lanik (Sugar Land, Texas / St. John's) put up 22 digs to lead the Tiger defensive effort, while McCarthy and Starr had three solo blocks each at the net.
The Rundown
Trinity came out strong by scoring six of the first seven points and taking a 13-3 lead against Oglethorpe to start the day. The Petrels never got closer than seven points the rest of the way and the Tigers led by as many as 13 (22-9) on their way to the 1-0 lead. Trinity scored the first four points of the second set and never looked back, using a 10-1 run shortly after to take a 20-4 lead and an impressive win to make it 2-0. Oglethorpe kept pace with Trinity in the third set until five unanswered points put the Tigers up 14-8. Trinity added a 7-0 run after that to kill any chance that the Petrels would avoid the sweep.
Centre and Trinity were evenly matched at the start and while Long used a kill and back-to-back aces to give the Tigers a 10-6 lead, the Colonels rallied for five unanswered points to pull back in front 11-10. Trinity built a slim 19-16 advantage late in the first set, but Centre rallied with a 6-1 run that put the home team up 22-20 late in the set. The Tigers answered with three straight scores of their own to reclaim the lead and never trailed again. Centre did survive a couple of set points and tied the game three times down the stretch, but Trinity scored the final two to take the narrow win.
Trinity scored the opening point of the second set and that was the only time that Centre trailed. The Colonels scored five straight after that initial point and led 9-4 after answering a short scoring spurt by the Tigers. Trinity rallied to within one point at 12-11, but Centre scored six of the next seven to widen the gap to 18-12. The Tigers got no close than five points from there and the match was even at 1-1. Centre started strong again in the third and took an 8-3 lead, though Trinity was able to tie things up at 11-11 with a run of its own. The Tigers kept making runs, but Centre held them off until Trinity used a 6-1 run to tie the game 21-21 in a bid to rally for the win. Instead, the home team scored four of the final five points in the set and took the 2-1 lead. Trinity scored the first two points of the fourth but never got on track and didn't score consecutive points the rest of the way. Centre finished strong with an 8-2 run to close out the match win.
Up Next
Trinity will finish off the road trip with another tough test by taking on 10th-ranked Berry College (GA) at 11:00 a.m. (ET) tomorrow. The Tigers return home for three more SAA games next weekend, hosting Millsaps College (MS), Southwestern University (TX), and Rhodes College (TN).
