SAN ANTONIO – The second-ranked Trinity University volleyball team opened the 2026 season with a 3-1 win over Schreiner University on Tuesday night.
The Tigers (1-0) lost the opening set 25-18 but dominated the second 25-8 to level the match. Trinity then won the next two sets 25-21 and 25-17 to finish off the victory, which is the ninth consecutive season that the Tigers have started the year with a win. The last opening loss came against California Lutheran University in 2016, who was the American Volleyball Coaches Association preseason #1 team in Division III that year.
Trinity had just eight kills in the first set and hit under .100 as a team, but the Tigers came back with a .542 hitting percentage in the dominant second set that turned the match around. Trinity wound up with 52 kills and a .265 team hitting percentage in the end, adding 12 service aces and 64 digs to its stat line for the evening. Trinity also held Schreiner to just .134 hitting for the night.
Sophomore
Lily Long (Glenview, Ill. / New Trier) led the team with 15 kills while adding seven digs and three service aces. Seniors
Lauren McCarthy (Corrales, NM / Horizon) and
Courtney Pope (New Braunfels, Texas / Canyon) finished with nine kills each. McCarthy hit .400 and added two aces and two blocks, while Pope hit .421 and matched McCarthy for the team lead with two blocks of her own. Fellow senior
Kendal DeRivel (Westlake Village, Calif. / Viewpoint) finished with 18 assists, five digs, and three aces, but sophomore
Anna Verhoff (Milton, Ga. / Milton) led Trinity with 25 assists.
Junior
Annabelle Lanik (Sugar Land, Texas / St. John's) led the way with 17 digs in the match, while junior
Brynn Bishop (Indianola, Iowa / Indianola) added 11 digs and was the only other Tiger in double figures. Sophomore
Lolo Jose (Austin, Texas / Lake Travis) chipped in with seven digs of her own, while first-year
Amelia Payton (Acworth, Ga. / Harrison) had a solid all-around debut with six kills, seven digs, and a team-leading four service aces.
The Rundown
Schreiner set the tone early by winning three of the first four points of the opening set, but the Tigers tied things up 8-8 shortly with an ace from McCarthy. The teams went point-for-point until Schreiner broke an 11-all tie with three straight points and held a lead the rest of the way. Trinity was still in the game late down 18-16 but the Mountaineers scored seven of the final nine points to close out the win.
Trinity took the first set as a wake-up call and took four of the first five points to swing momentum in their direction early. Schreiner kept pace for the first several points, but the Tigers scored nine straight points to take full control for good. Pope started with back-to-back kills to ignite the run, then Long had one of two aces during the streak to keep it going. Pope, Verhoff, and Payton all added kills and the Tigers led 15-4. The Mountaineers never got the lead under double figures after that, and Trinity scored the final six points to close out the win. Payton had two aces among the final three points, while Long and McCarthy also added kills.
The third set was the closest of the match as both teams were determined to get momentum and neither had more than two straight points until the Tigers broke a 6-6 tie with three points in a row. Schreiner stayed in the fight, though, and briefly took a 13-12 lead with three straight points of its own. Trinity answered with a 4-0 run on two kills each for Long and Pope, making it a 16-13 advantage. The Mountaineers tied things up 19-19 after that, but Trinity was once again up to the challenge, scoring four in a row again as DeRivel had a pair of aces between two kills for McCarthy to swing the game their way. Schreiner broke it up with two scores of their own but McWilliams and Long had a pair of kills to put the game away.
Leading 2-1 in the match, Trinity jumped in front early in the fourth set by scoring four straight points on kills from McCarthy, DeRivel, and Long. Sophomore
Aeris Vera (San Antonio, Texas / Pieper) had a kill and a block shortly after to put the Tigers in front 8-2. Both teams traded small runs after that, but the lead never got smaller than two points. Leading 19-16 late in the set, Trinity scored six of the final seven points to finish off the win as Payton closed the set with another ace to clinch it.
Up Next
The Tigers will host the Trinity National Invitational this weekend, facing off against #4 East Texas Baptist University at 5:30 p.m. on Friday evening. The Tigers will also face Gustavus Adolphus College (MN) and the University of Redlands (CA) on Saturday, with Schreiner also competing at the two-day event.
