Volleyball Edged by Trinity, 3-2, at UMB Tournament

BOSTON, Mass. –The Trinity College volleyball team edged Bridgewater State University, 3-2, in a long five-set match on Friday night at the UMB Volleyball Tournament hosted by UMass Boston.

The Bantams (2-0) won sets two, four and five, 25-21, 25-18 and 15-11. The Bears (1-1) took sets one and three, 28-26 and 26-24.

Bridgewater rallied late in the opening set to post a 28-26 win. Trailing 23-19, the Bears reeled off five straight points on a pair of Trinity attacking errors, an Ava Crane (So., Dartmouth, Mass.) ace and back-to-back kills by junior Kim Gowell (Durham, N.H.). With the score knotted at 26-26, junior Meaghan Coutu (Brookline, N.H.) recorded back-to-back kills to secure game one.

Trinity pulled out a 25-22 decision in a second set which featured 12 ties. With the Bantams clinging to a 22-21 lead, the Bears committed three straight errors (serving, setting, attacking) to close out the set.

Set three featured 11 ties. With the score knotted at 17-17, Trinity reeled off four straight points highlighted by a pair of kills from senior Eva Lekovic (San Marino, Calif.). Another kill by Lekovic followed by a Caroline Howell (Jr., Houston, Texas) ace gave the Bantams their biggest lead of the set at 24-19. Staring at set point, the Bears responded with a 7-0 run to pull off the improbable 26-24 victory. Senior Abigail Reardon (Fairhaven, Mass.) started the rally with a kill, and Crane followed with back-to-back aces to cut the deficit to two. A Gowell kill and a pair of Trinity attacking errors gave the Bears their first lead since 15-14. Crane then capped off the comeback with another ace.

Trinity scored the first six points of the fourth set but watched that early lead disappear as the Bears used a 9-3 run, capped off by consecutive kills from Crane and Coutu, to tie things up at 10-10. The Bantams reclaimed the lead thanks to a pair of BSU errors followed by an ace from freshman Bella Ciraco (Park City, Utah) and a Bella Caffuzzi (Sr., Brooklyn, N.Y.) kill. Trinity would maintain the lead the rest of the way as the Bantams took the set, 25-18.

Bridgewater trailed 11-6 in the decisive fifth set before ripping off five straight points on four Trinity errors and a Crane kill to even things up at 11-11. The Bears, however, would not score again. A Howell ace sandwiched around a pair of BSU errors put the Bantams at match point. Junior Ellie Gordon (Los Angeles, Calif.) then ended the five-set marathon with a kill.

Caffuzzi paced Trinity with 12 kills, a .357 hitting percentage and a match-high five blocks (three solo). The Bantams also received 11 kills and four blocks (three solo) from Gordon and eight kills apiece from Lekovic and freshman Annette Schlunk (Hollis, N.H.). Lekovic also recorded three blocks (two solo).

Howell checked in with 21 assists, three aces and 11 digs for the Bantams while senior Grace Sullivan (Fort Worth, Texas) notched 20 kills and four aces, and sophomore Scarlett Jago (Allentown, Pa.) tallied a match-best 29 digs.

Crane paced Bridgewater State with 19 digs, five kills, three assists, two blocks (one solo) and a match-high five aces. Coutu added 12 kills for the Bears who also received 11 kills from sophomore Lily Welch (Hanson, Mass.) and nine kills from Gowell. Graduate student Bethany Votta (Cumberland, R.I.) dished out 21 assists to go along with seven digs.

The UMB Volleyball Tournament continues on Saturday as the Bears till take on host UMass Boston at noon and Roger Williams University at four o'clock.