SAN ANTONIO – The #3 Trinity University volleyball team finished off the opening day at the Trinity Fall Classic with a 3-0 sweep against #18 Johns Hopkins University (MD) on Friday night in Calgaard Gymnasium.
The Tigers (6-1) won 25-15, 25-20, and 25-21 over the Blue Jays (3-4), dropping Johns Hopkins to 0-2 so far this weekend. Trinity will face off against Washington University (MO) tomorrow, who defeated JHU to open the tournament on Friday. Johns Hopkins will take on the University of St. Thomas (TX) to close its part in the tournament, with Trinity scheduled to finish the weekend against UST.
Kendall DeRivel (Westlake Village, Calif. / Viewpoint) led the Tigers to a team hitting percentage of .311 for the match, finishing with 28 assists to go with six digs.
Anna Verhoff (Milton, Ga. / Milton) added 12 assists to push Trinity over 40 for the match.
Lily Long (Glenview, Ill. / New Trier) and
Courtney Pope (New Braunfels, Texas / Canyon) combined for 28 kills to lead the Tiger offense. Long finished with a team-best 15 kills and a scorching .542 hitting percentage, as well as recording seven digs. Pope hit .385 with a total of 13 kills, adding four blocks – just one shy of the team leader in blocks:
Taylor Starr (Southlake, Texas / Carroll) with five.
Lauren McCarthy (Corrales, N.M. / Horizon) recorded four service aces and chipped in with two blocks and four digs.
Annabelle Lanik (Sugar Land, Texas / St. John's) led the team with 13 digs, while
Amelia Payton (Acworth, Ga. / Harrison) finished with eight kills and six digs and hit .333 for the match.
The Rundown
The Tigers came out strong in the opening game and set the tone for the match with a dominating performance. Trinity scored the first five points of the match, beginning with three straight kills from Pope. Johns Hopkins scored four of the next five points to cut it to a 6-4 deficit, but the Tigers answered with six straight points to push the lead back to 12-4. Pope added two more kills during that run and Starr combined with Pope and Long for a pair of blocks as well. Trinity's lead was never less than four points the rest of the way and another late run finished off the win. Leading 17-13, the Tigers rattled off six unanswered points behind three kills from Long, as well as a block and a kill from Starr, to make it a double-digit lead with just two points needed to end the set. After JHU picked up two points, Pope got a kill and the Blue Jays committed one final hitting error to give Trinity the 25-15 win and a 1-0 match lead.
The second set started like the first, though Johns Hopkins scored the first point and then Trinity rattled off four straight scores. Long had a pair of kills to start the run, then Lanik finished it with an ace. The Blue Jays were not going to go quietly, though, and fought back to take a 7-5 lead. The relentless Tigers roared back in front with six straight points of their own, led by two kills from
Connelley McWilliams (Austin, Texas / St. Michael's). Johns Hopkins scored the next two points to make it an 11-9 game, but they would get no closer the rest of the way. Every time the Blue Jays got within striking distance, Trinity widened the gap to control the game. Neither team scored more than three straight points the rest of the way and Trinity held on for the 25-20 win.
The third set started with both teams trading leads and neither putting together more than two straight points early on. The Tigers scored four of five points in a stretch to turn an 8-7 deficit into an 11-9 lead. Payton and Pope had two kills each to fuel the run. Johns Hopkins came right back with a 4-1 run of its own to pull back in front, and the back-and-forth scoring continued. Following the technical timeout, Trinity made its move with six unanswered points to pull out to a 19-15 lead. Starr and
Mae Noerager (Homewood, Ala. / Homewood) combined for a pair of blocks during the pivotal run. The Blue Jays came back to within one at 20-19, but Payton, Long, and Pope had three straight kills, and the Tigers took back the momentum. The teams traded points from there, with Long and McCarthy getting the last two kills to finish off the Tiger sweep.
Up Next
Trinity will take on #13 Washington University (MO) at 11:00 a.m. to kick off the second day of the tournament, then will finish the weekend with a matchup against the University of St. Thomas (TX).
