ADA, Ohio - It was a solid start to the season for the Trine University volleyball team as they finished second at the 34th annual Ohio Northern University Invitational, finishing the two-day tournament with a 3-1 record.
The Thunder started their season with a 5-set comeback win over Thiel, 25-20, 13-25, 16-25, 27-25, 15-12. The squad managed to make 103 digs in the game, their most since September 18, 2010 against Muskingum. Sophomore Carly Searles (Levering, Mich./Petoskey) finished the game with a triple-double, 19 digs, 14 kills and 13 assists. Searles feat was just the second recorded triple-double in school history, the other coming 10 years ago on October 18, 2002 by Kelly Mann against Taylor University Fort Wayne when she had 26 digs, 11 aces and 10 kills.
In game two Trine took on 21st ranked Heidelberg. It would be another hotly contested match but the Thunder would pull out a 4-set win 25-15, 26-28, 25-21, 25-23. As a team, Trine managed to put down 11 service aces for the game.
Day two of the tournament saw the Thunder suffer their only loss of the weekend to host Ohio Northern, 3-1 (19-25, 25-22, 15-25, 14-25). Trine was able to knock down a tournament-high six blocks against the Polar Bears. During the match senior setter Sarah Radekin (Athens, Ohio /Alexander) set Trine’s career assist mark, surpassing Rainbow Bednarski (2,946; 2003-2006).
The final match of the weekend saw Trine take on Carnegie Mellon. The Thunder saved their best offensive performance of the tournament for their final game as they hit a tournament-high .276 with 52 kills compared to just 15 errors. Trine had 11 aces for the match taking the game 3-1 (25-11, 24-26, 25-18, 25-16)
Senior Betsy Irwin (Athens, Ohio /Alexander) led the Thunder offense in the tournament with a team-high 48 kills and 15 blocks. Junior Taylor Rabel (Athens, Ohio /Alexander) finished the four games with 45 kills and hitting .217. Radekin setup Trine’s offense all weekend averaging 8.71 assists per set to finish the two days with 148 assists while also knocking down six blocks and making 39 digs. Searles did a little bit of everything during the tournament, finishing with 61 digs, 46 kills, 25 assists, six aces and four blocks.
Defensively, junior libero Darcy Crabtree (Muncie, Ind./Wes-Del) led Trine with over five digs per set, finishing with 90 on the weekend while adding in six service aces. Freshman Megan Verkamp (Franklin, Ind./Franklin Community) led Trine at the service line with a team-high nine aces.
Both Irwin and Crabtree were named to the All-Tournament team.
Trine will take Labor Day off before beginning conference play in their home opener against Saint Mary’s on September 4 at 7:00 p.m.