MORGANTOWN — The Trinity Christian volleyball team continued its strong 2023 campaign on Monday evening in a tri-match high on the hill in Sabraton with Tygarts Valley and Hundred visiting.
Coming into the match, the Warriors (10-2) were taking the floor for the first match since experiencing their first two losses of the season last week against Notre Dame and Liberty on Wednesday. Not only did TCS bounce back for two victories on the evening, it didn’t drop a single set in either match and were in control for much of both of them.
“With losing last week this was a great chance for a confidence booster,” TCS first-year head coach Anna Witt said. “We needed the bounce back and I think our effort was great. I always tell them to play for the person next to them and that’s what they did.”
The Warriors and Lady Hornets opened the action and it was the visitors who took advantage of some unforced errors by the hosts to jump out to a 7-1 lead early in the first set.
After finally earning a point and the serve-in-hand, the Warriors rallied behind some strong service from sophomore Rylan Sharp, who helped her team earn eight straight points while serving and forcing Hundred to take a timeout trailing 10-7.
“We make sure to focus on serving a lot in practice, if you can’t serve you can’t play volleyball,” Witt said. “That’s a really big thing for us. Serving and defense all the time.”
The Warriors did well out of the timeout to deny the Lady Hornets a wave of momentum and continued to hold on to an extended lead at 15-10. However, a slew of unforced errors for TCS gave Hundred five straight points that cut the lead to just one at 16-15.
Fortunately for the Warriors, they would only surrender two more points in the first set and win 25-17.
Settled in after an opening set victory, TCS controlled the second set and earned a 25-11 win and a 2-0 sweep in the first match of the three.
After the second match between Hundred and Tygarts Valley, won by the Lady Hornets, the Warriors took to the court against TV.
After cruising to a 25-10 win in the opening set the Warriors allowed another comeback, similar to the one in the first set against Hundred.
Leading 15-10, TCS seemed to be on its way to another double-digit set win, but TV responded and kept pace, finding itself down three to five points nearly the entire set.
Some unforced errors near the end of the second set gave the Warriors the boost they needed however, and they eventually won the set 25-20, and the match 2-0.
“Going forward I want them to be stronger mentally and with their passion,” she said. “Also with our trust in our teammates. We have so much talent on the team and we all want to make an impact. But sometimes trusting the person next to you to make the play and get it done is just as important.”
