Dickinson Trinity suffers shocking, 3-0, straight-sets loss to Northern Cass

Nov. 18—FARGO — No, that headline isn't a misprint.

As shocking as it must look on paper, the state-of-disbelief for many volleyball fans throughout the state — particularly those who were among the Trinity Faithful in attendance at the FargoDome on Friday, Nov. 17 — it was more unbelievable to the naked eyes that watched the Titans fall in straight-sets by scores of 17-25, 23-25 and 11-25 to the fourth-ranked Northern Cass Jaguars, who will now face the #2 Mayville-Portland-C-G team that upended Our Redeemer's in a 3-2 marathon that preceded THS's semifinal loss. Dickinson Trinity spent the majority of the 2023 calendar perched atop the rankings in Class B after compiling a perfect 11-0 Region 7 record and ripping through the division's postseason tournament without losing a set and topping Beulah in that final, 3-0, as well.

In fact, a quick perusal of the team's schedule will show the Titans only lost a single match previous to Friday night and — even more remarkably — had only lost 9 sets in their initial 36-1 match-record during the regular season and bounced state-quarterfinal opponents Shiloh Christian by the same, 3-0, margin.

"I think we came into this game knowing when we play Titan volleyball that's our best volleyball, and we come out with a fiery mentality," Trinity head volleyball coach Breanna Sisson said. "But I think throughout the match we were kind of on our heels and we were just one step late to the ball and we were just playing too much not-to-lose instead of power-to-win."

She added, "I think it was just more the mentality, if we could have just come in with a little more energy and a little more fire under us I think it would have been a different match."

Even the beginning of the match started well, as senior setter Delaney Deschamp — who registered 23 assists on the night and 15 digs on defense — reeled off 4-straight points from her service-game for an early 5-0 lead. But then Jaguars 6'3" senior Josie Jensen took over at the service-line and ripped off 10-consecutive points to put the Titans off their game and 6'1" senior Ellie Lucas pounded down the points at the net on stunning kills to help the Jaguars (34-4-1) post an 18-10 lead.

Trinity managed to come back with kills from junior outside-hitter Bella Kovash and senior middle-hitter Ava Jahner, with a timely and inspiring block from Jahner and a kill from Melissa Zach, but the team fell to an opening-set 25-17 loss.

It looked as though Jensen might have suffered a severe knee injury in that first set, as she came out of the game at the 22-15 point, but she later returned in the second set to help pace the Jaguars the rest of the way.

Northern Cass jumped out to an 11-5 lead at the first timeout in set #2 and Trinity was unable to get things going from the service-line for the first rotation of servers and only an ace from Kovash stood out on the scoresheet. But the Titans came roaring back from there and, despite being down 18-9 at one point, THS put together a solid 10-3 run on the strength of kills from Kovash, Deschamp and Olivia Kessel to close the deficit to 24-21. Two more kills from senior outside-hitter Helena Pavek almost helped turn the game in Trinity's favor, but a final-point kill from Jensen — after she came back on the court from the locker room — ended the second set at 25-23.

The third set was a reflection of the first, but with an even-more-disastrous result, as Jensen's service-game took over with the Titans up 4-3, and the Jaguars scratched their way to a 10-4 lead on the back end of her service and were up 13-5 at the first timeout.

THS again couldn't get things going from the service-line in response and Northern Cass began to pull away, despite kills from Kessel, Zach and Jahner, who ended up with a team-high 7 in the match. Another 8-4 run sent the Jaguars to a 21-10 lead, with two kills again from Jensen, and the victors closed out the match on a 3-0 scoring run with the final kill again coming from Jensen to advance to the Class B State Finals.

"They're a team that's known for their blocks because of their size and we knew that going in, but I think we have hitters that know how to work some shots and work their angles, and we just weren't connecting," Sisson said. "Maybe there was a little bit of an intimidation factor at the net, but I'm still proud of us going all-out and we definitely still played with heart."

Zach ended up with 6 kills and Pavek threw down 5, while Kovash added 4 and came away with 6 digs on defense. Also on defense, senior libero Jersey Erie had 18 digs and Jahner had 7, while Elly McAvoy had 6. Jahner also had 2 blocks in the game to lead the Titans on the defensive side of the net.

Trinity will now face Our Redeemer's in the third-place consolation game at 1 p.m. Saturday at the FargoDome, a team the Titans defeated on Aug. 26 at the season-opening Coal Country Tournament in Beulah and again 2-1 at the Des Lacs-Burlington Tournament on Sept. 30 and once more on Oct. 12 by a score of 3-2.

For more information about Trinity High School's athletic programs, please visit

https://trinitycatholicschools.com/athletic-schedules

. For more information about prep volleyball in North Dakota, please visit

https://ndhsaanow.com/tournaments/volleyball

and/or keep reading The Dickinson Press.