Volleyball drops two home matches to finish season

MEGHAN O’REILLY ’19

STAFF WRITER

The Bantams had a rough weekend to close their season, dropping two home matches to Amherst and Williams. The season did not go as planned but the team fought hard throughout the year.

On the afternoon of Halloween, the Trinity Volleyball team played the Williams College Ephs at home in their last game of the season. The Bantams, who came into the came with an 8-14 record were not able to hold out against the Ephs and fell in all three sets, 21-25, 24-26, and 12-25.

As they have done all season, the Bantams got out to a quick start in the first set and battled back and forth with Williams into the latter half of the first. Rallies between the teams were long and tensely watched by parents and students in the crowd. Rachel Underwood ’19 served consistently throughout the match, which breathed life into the squad, and brought them back from the brink of defeat several times.

Veteran Kate Giddens ’16 was a big contributor, and recorded 10 massive kills in the game. But the Ephs matched the team’s effort for all three sets, and would not let them run away with the match. Every time Trinity would pull ahead, Williams would pull it right back, never allowing the point differential to get too far out of reach. Williams regrouped after a timeout late in the set and was able to capitalize on some of Trinity’s errors, and close out the first set 21-25.

Similarly, the Bantams found early success in the second set, pulling ahead to 5-0 lead, but Williams slowly chipped away at the lead, and gained back those lost points to keep the game close. Williams served well, but good defense from the Bantams kept the score neck-and-neck until Trinity surged ahead with five straight points from five different players. It appeared that Trinity might take the second game, but they just could not close it out, and Williams eventually stole the second set 24-26.

Downtrodden by the close loss in the previous set, Trinity was not able to muster their team morale to rally in the third.  Unlike the previous two games, Trinity got off to a slow start, and this time the Bantams were not able to pull themselves out of the hole they quickly dug. Williams made the most of Trinity’s slip-ups, and surged ahead to put the game out of reach. A late energy renewal saw the score get to 10-22, but the Ephs were able to close minutes later.  The final score of the final set was 12-25.

It was a heartbreaking loss for seniors Gina Buzzelli, Tori Larson, Katie Stueber, Hunter Drews, Kate Giddens, and Susannah Matthai in their last game in a Trinity uniform, but the six all had their own highlight moments during their time playing.  As coach Jen Bowman gave a pep talk after the game, it was clear that there is a lot of faith in the team’s returning roster. Looking forward, it will be exciting to see if the women can bounce back and hit the court hungry at the start of the 2016 season.