EDINBURGH — After making it to the Class A state finals as freshman, this group of Trinity Lutheran volleyball seniors lost in the regional each of the past two years.
So when Class A No. 1 Trinity captured the Edinburgh Regional title on Saturday night with a 25-15, 25-9, 25-9 win against South Decatur, its five seniors were more than thrilled to be headed back to semistate. Trinity will face Springs Valley at around noon Nov. 2 in the semifinals of the Jasper Semistate. The semistate final is at 7 p.m. Nov. 2
“It’s super exciting,” senior Carson Bowling said. “My sophomore year, losing regional was so devastating because we were just used to winning it. Junior year, we didn’t win either, so it’s really exciting to get the grind back on and hopefully go back to state this year. I think we have the best shot (at winning state) we’ve had my whole four years of being here.”
Bowling and fellow seniors Addie Darlage, Madison Keith and Laura Roeder were starters as freshman when Trinity was state runner-up. Ava Blomenberg dressed varsity for the tournament that year and joined the regular rotation as a sophomore.
“It’s a feeling like no other,” Blomenberg said. “It’s just really amazing.”
“They have worked really hard for a lot of years, and they have kids that push them every day,” Trinity coach Janet VanLiew added. “That’s what’s kind of unique about this team. They are a great group of seniors, but they are pushed literally every day by kids that want to play and are very good.”
Trinity (26-8) used a potent serving attack on Saturday, recording 20 aces as a team.
“We train serving a lot in practice,” said Bowling, who led the team with seven aces. “We always do serving drills. Serving is definitely something that we work really hard at every day.”
“We concentrate a lot not just on consistency, but aggressive serves to zones,” VanLiew added. “We just served very well, very consistently.”
South Decatur (27-5) stayed competitive in the first set after falling behind 8-2 and 15-5. South Decatur led 5-4 in the second set before Trinity tied it and then got seven straight points with Bowling at the service line.
“They scored more points in the first set than we had planned on, but they know how to win, and that’s what I told the girls,” VanLiew said. “They’re a little more unconventional than what we’re used to playing, but they know how to win. They’ve won more games than us.”
Trinity jumped out to a 10-1 lead in the third set behind the serving of Roeder and Presley Meyer and cruised from there.
In addition to the three aces, Bowling led Trinity with nine kills and three blocks. Blomenberg pounded seven kills, and Keith added six kills among Darlage’s 27 assists.
“A lot of the quicker sets help us to run a quicker offense to have more kills,” Blomenberg said.
Also for Trinity, Roeder recorded 12 digs and six aces, and Darlage added one block, nine digs and three aces. Bailey Bonde had two blocks, and Keith notched seven digs.
“I just think it’s a lot of fun for the kids,” VanLiew said. “It’s a great group of girls that just buy into working hard every single day. It’s nice to be able to share it with those girls that have worked hard.”
Taylor Somers led South Decatur with four kills and two blocks. Makayla Somers recorded 10 assists, and Paige McQueen notched seven digs.
Also for South Decatur, Aniston Bostic tallied three kills, one block and three digs and Zsophia Sharp had two kills and four digs. McQueen posted one block, and Makayla Somers and Elizabeth Bennett each added three digs.
“It’s not the ending that we wanted, but these girls are awesome,” South Decatur coach Devin Sutliff said. “(Trinity is) a really good serving team. We knew that. We’re a competitive team. Our passing, we just couldn’t get a ball in front of that 10-foot line, and that’s what got us tonight.
“We just got in our heads a little bit tonight, but doing everything that we did this year — beating North (Decatur) twice, getting conference, winning sectional and making it to regional is something that hadn’t been done for 26 years,” she added. “So it’s amazing. It’s really bittersweet to lose our seniors.”
