SAN ANTONIO – The third-ranked Trinity University volleyball team split matches on the final day of the Trinity Fall Classic, falling in a 3-2 thriller against #13 Washington University (MO) before finishing with a 3-1 win over the University of St. Thomas (TX) on Saturday evening.
The Tigers (8-2) won the opening set against the Bears (8-2) 25-20 but dropped the next two 25-23 and 25-12. Trinity rallied to win 25-18 in the fourth set, but Wash U finished with a 15-8 win to hand Trinity its second loss of the season. Wash U won all three of its matches at the tournament to take first place. Trinity finished second after closing the weekend with a 25-13, 18-25, 25-20, 25-15 win over the Celts (1-5).
Lily Long (Glenview, Ill. / New Trier) finished with a career-high 22 kills in the loss to Wash U, adding nine digs and four assists.
Kendall DeRivel (Westlake Village, Calif. / Viewpoint) also put up a new career high with 19 digs to go with 24 assists to notch a double-double in the match.
Annabelle Lanik (Sugar Land, Texas / St. John's) added 13 digs and was the only other Tiger in double figures.
Amelia Payton (Acworth, Ga. / Harrison) recorded 13 kills and
Courtney Pope (New Braunfels, Texas / Canyon) finished with 10 to round out the Trinity hitters with double-digit kills. Pope also had five blocks and
Taylor Starr (Southlake, Texas / Carroll) finished with four, but both trailed team leader
Lauren McCarthy (Corrales, N.M. / Horizon) with six blocks in the match.
Anna Verhoff (Milton, Ga. / Milton) chipped in with 17 assists in the defeat, while DeRivel, Lanik, and Long had two aces each.
Against St. Thomas, it was Pope who led the team with 17 kills to tie her career best mark, hitting .333 and adding three blocks to tie McCarthy for the team lead. Long finished with a double-double of 13 kills and 13 digs, with Lanik leading the team with 16 digs. McCarthy hit .471 in the match and finished with nine kills, while
Annie Witt (Liberty Hill, Texas / Liberty Hill) had six kills in six attacks to finish with a perfect 1.000 hitting percentage. Payton and
Brynn Bishop (Indianola, Iowa / Indianola) finished just short of double figures with eight digs. DeRivel led the way with 27 assists and seven digs, with Verhoff matching the seven digs to go with 18 assists.
The Rundown: Wash U
The opening set between the two nationally-ranked teams was evenly-matched at the start as neither team scored more than three straight points until the end. Wash U scored three straight early to take a 7-5 lead but Trinity scored four of the next five points to take a slim 9-8 lead of its own. Another short run by the Bears broke a 13-all tie and put the visitors in front 16-13, but the Tigers answered with the best run of the set to take a 22-18 lead. Long started the 9-2 streak with a kill and an ace, then Payton had three straight kills for Trinity. Wash U scored two of the next three to try and extend the set, but Pope and Long had back-to-back kills to finish off the win and put Trinity up 1-0.
Trinity came out on fire in the second set, beginning with a 10-3 run that was highlighted by three blocks from McCarthy and a pair of kills from Long. The Tigers were able to keep the lead at four or more points the rest of the way, but Wash U also never trailed by more than seven points. Trinity still led 23-18 towards the end and were poised to take the 2-0 lead, but the Bears shocked the home team with seven unanswered points and tied the match 1-1. That momentum carried into the third set for Wash U, who used an early 9-1 run to take an 14-5 lead. The lead reached double figures briefly before Trinity made a push of its own to cut it to at 17-10 game, but the Bears scored eight of the next 10 points to close out the win and take a 2-1 match lead.
The Tigers found their confidence again in the fourth set, rattling off six unanswered points to start things off. Wash U settled in and made a short run of its own to cut it to an 8-6 margin, but Long heated up by ripping off four kills on the next five Trinity points and the lead grew back to 15-9. The Bears never got closer than four points after that and the Tigers took the win to force a fifth set. Wash U scored the first two points in the fifth, but the Tigers tied things up on kills from Starr and Long. Wash U came right back with a 5-1 run to take control of the set with a 7-3 lead. Long had a kill and an ace on consecutive points to trim the lead to just two, but Wash U scored four of the next five to keep control. The Tigers managed points on two Wash U service errors after that, and the Bears scored four of the last five points to take the 3-2 win.
The Rundown: St. Thomas
Trinity scored five of the first six points to open the match against St. Thomas with Long contributing a kill and an ace. The Tiger lead grew as high as 12-5 before the Celts rallied with four straight points. Another 5-1 stretch for Trinity featured another kill and ace from Long and the Tigers pulled away 17-10. Trinity scored six unanswered to close out the set, with Long notching a pair of kills and McCarthy getting a block and a kill. St. Thomas came out strong to start the second with a 4-1 run, but Pope fueled four straight Trinity points with three kills in a row. St. Thomas regained the lead and Trinity kept the deficit close until the Celts scored four straight to take a 15-10 lead. Trinity took the next point to cut the lead to four but never got closer than that the rest of the way, as UST tied things up 1-1.
The third set was neck-and-neck until the very end. Neither team scored more than three points in a row and no one led by more than two points until a late run by the Tigers that finished off the win. St. Thomas broke a 19-19 tie to take a slim lead late in the match, but Long led Trinity to a 6-0 run by producing four kills - including the clincher to give the Tigers a 2-1 match lead. The Celts scored the first points of the fourth set and that ended up being the only time Trinity trailed in the match-clinching game. St. Thomas tied the game several times after that but could never get ahead. Trinity broke a 6-6 tie with five unanswered points but UST matched that to tie the game 11-11. The Tigers then broke a 13-all tie by scoring 11 of the next 12 to set up match point. McCarthy had three kills and a block during eight unanswered points for the Tigers, then after UST broke that streak, Pope delivered a match-clinching kill to end the day.
Up Next
Trinity opens up Southern Athletic Association play next weekend, facing off against three conference teams at home next weekend. The Tigers will face Berry College (GA) on Friday, September 25, at 5:30 p.m. Trinity takes on Centre College (KY) and Oglethorpe University (GA) on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., respectively. Berry came into the weekend ranked ninth in the AVCA poll, while Centre was 20th.
