KERRVILLE, Texas - The No. 2 ranked Southwestern University volleyball team suffered a heartbreaking five set loss to No. 5 ranked Trinity University on Friday night in the semifinals of the SCAC Volleyball Championships on the campus of Schreiner University.
"That is the type of match that we want to be involved in as much as possible," said Head Coach Don Flora "Yet, there are some key moments where we need to live into the play and live into that elite level volleyball."
The Tigers hit .226 in the match while Southwestern hit .196. Southwestern had 96 digs to Trinity's 87 but the Tigers were geat around the net, finishing with 18 total blocks to Southwestern's eight.
In the first set, Trinity jumped out to a 13-9 lead before the Pirates rattled off eight consecutive points to take a 17-13 lead. However, it was Trinity who would close the match strong, storming back to take set one 25-23.
The next two sets would be all Southwestern, dominating the second and third sets from start to finish. The Pirates held Trinity to a .000 hitting percentage in set two before coming together for a red hot .382 hitting percentage, taking the two sets 25-17, 25-19 to open up a 2-1 lead.
"We played a lot of really clean volleyball, but at times we let some small things get away from us," added Flora. "Things that we can clean up and get better at quickly."
Southwestern looked to put the match away in the fourth set, maintaing the lead for most of the set by only one or two points. However, it was Trinity again who was able to close the close set, scoring four straight points while down 19-17 to take the lead and eventually close the set at 25-23.
In the fifth set, Southwestern again held the early lead, taking a slim 8-7 advantage as the teams switched sides, but once again Trinity found a way to close, out scoring Southwestern 8-4 after the switch to close teh match and take the five set thriller.
Defensively, senior Brandi Campos paced the Pirates with 29 digs followed closely by Duck with 28, freshman Taylor Beltz with 13, and Grimes with 12. Mitchell and Hohlt each finished with two block assists and a block solo.
"Offensively we just needed to make a couple of key decisions in crunch time and those decisions would make a great impact," said Flora. "I look forward to seeing us grow from this match and continue to reach some key program goals."
The tough loss sets Southwestern back to 28-5 and the Pirates will return to action in the 3rd/4th Place Match on Saturday as they take on Texas Lutheran at 2 PM. The Bulldogs took No. 1 ranked Colorado College to five sets before eventually falling in the earlier match.
