Trinity volleyball team posts excellent showing at DLB Tournament
Oct. 3—DES LACS-BURLINGTON — In sports, there are such things as "good-losses" that come during a successful stretch-run and they remind teams they are vulnerable — these losses help them grow and challenge themselves further — and the Trinity Titans suffered just such a defeat during last-weekend's Des Lacs-Burlington Tournament: Finishing second-place to Langdon in a three-set marathon that showed THS just how well they're situated in the grand scheme of Class B volleyball throughout the state of North Dakota at the current moment. The final game featured scores of 25-27, 25-16 and a 12-15 final set that didn't go Trinity's way, but showed the team a few things in the process that head coach Breanna Sisson said will encourage them to keep pushing and envision their potential successes in a different way.
"We went up there so we could be put into situations that make us uncomfortable, and getting outside of our comfort-zone is something that we need to do to grow as a team and we did exactly that once we got up there," Sisson said. "We saw some competitive teams and being able to play seven matches through the tournament you got to see a wide variety of skills."
Things were rolling for Trinity from the jump, with a spotless pool-play series that saw 2-0 wins over Center-Stanton (25-14, 25-18), Rugby (25-11, 25-10) and state-finalists Linton/HMB (25-16, 25-10) and a 1-1 split with New Rockford (23-25, 25-18) that set them up in first in their pool as they headed into Gold Division play.
Among the standout offensive performances in that series of pool play were a combined 70 assists for senior setter Delaney Deschamp and 6 aces from fellow senior Jersey Erie, which dovetailed nicely with a massive number of kills (86) for the team — led by senior middle-hitter Olivia Kessel and senior outside-hitter Helena Pavek's 22 apiece combined with senior middle-hitter Ava Jahner's 19 — and 26 total aces from the service-line.
From there, the challenges increased with a two-set win over Carrington featuring scores of 25-13 and a 25-23 nailbiter that saw another standout performance by Deschamp in the assist department with 22, a team-leading 3 aces from Bella Kovash and 10 kills from Jahner that paced the team on offense. Pavek added another 8 kills in the game and the rest of the team combined for 9. On the defensive side of the net, Jahner led the team with 15 digs and Erie contributed 10 more, while Elly McAvoy turned in 9 and Kovash added 7 to stop Carrington in their tracks.
The DLB Tournament semifinals versus Our Redeemer Catholic School was a three-set dynamo, featuring a 2-1 win for Trinity by scores of an opening-set 12-25 loss, followed by a 25-20 comeback and a 15-4 finale in a game that was paced by 3 aces each from Erie and Jahner, which were added in attack to 8 kills for Kessel and 6-each from Jahner and Pavek with 5 added by Kovash to the total of 29 for the team.
That win set up the finals against Langdon in the Gold Division for Trinity, and the game didn't disappoint as the Titans were consistent across the box score, with the team combining for 33 kills — 9 from Pavek, 8 from Jahner, and 6-each from Kessel and Melissa Zach — and 4 aces with zero service errors. Deschamp again was a setup-artist with 21 assists and the team also performed well defensively in the match with 16 digs from Erie and 10 from Jahner and Deschamp's 5 to go along with 5 more from Serenity Pavlicek.
"Langdon has been a top-team, and you can go back year-after-year; they're notably at the top in Class B," Sisson said. "And so, going against them in the championship match, we knew they were going to be well-rounded. They have great hitters and are scrappy on defense and they just kept putting the pressure on us."
She added, "They were able to swing big and I think our defense was having to adjust quite a bit and they were just slightly one step ahead of us all match; but I thought we hung in there with them and proved that we were at least able to compete with them and hopefully we get a chance at them here this weekend."
Next up in regular-season play for the Titans will be a trip to New England tonight (Oct. 3) to face the Tigers in Class B, Region 7 play, and they will then head to Grand Forks/Langdon to potentially face their recent-DLB-Tournament nemeses on their home-floor in a rematch. Other teams in the Langdon tourney on Saturday, Oct. 6 will include Shiloh Christian, North Border, Central Cass and eight others.
For more information about prep volleyball in North Dakota, please visit
https://ndhsaanow.com/tournaments/volleyball
and/or keep reading The Dickinson Press.
