ALBION, MICH.-- Trine had to dig deep after falling behind a scrappy Albion team, but were able to rally back to earn a five-set victory (20-25, 25-19, 21-25, 26-24, 15-13) over the Britons Friday night at Kresge Gymnasium.
Albion played an emotionally-charged match on Senior Night and brought solid work on the block, as the Britons came away with 10 blocks and frustrated the Thunder into an .069 hitting percentage. Emma Bowman (Saint Joseph, Mich./Saint Joseph) came off the bench to provide a huge spark in the final two sets for Trine, as the freshman put away a career-high six kills on a .750 hitting percentage. Bowman entered the match with just one kill on the season. The Thunder conclude conference play with an all-time best 12-4 mark in MIAA matches. Trine is now 23-4 on the season. Albion concludes their season 5-23 overall, 2-14 in MIAA matches.
Taylor Rabel (Muncie, Ind./Muncie Central) notched her 10th double-double, with a team-high 20 kills to go along with 14 digs. The junior became the sixth player in school history to top 900 career kills. Lauren Verkamp (Franklin, Ind./Franklin Community) added her eighth double-double of the season, finishing with 13 kills and a career-high 20 digs.
Five Thunder players finished with 10 or more digs, led by Mikayla Carpenter (Huntington, Ind./Huntington North) with 30. Carly Searles (Levering, Mich./Petoskey) notched a career-high 27 digs, and added 46 assists and eight kills. Trine totaled 113 digs on the night.
Stephanie Turner led the Britons with 17 kills, hit .302, and assisted on five blocks. Jessica Koieczny and Lauren Outwater each added eight kills, with Outwater contributing a team-high 21 kills to the defensive effort as well. While the Britons only finished with the 10 blocks, their presence at the net helped force Trine into 22 more swings and 46 attack errors.
Six Britons finished with 10 or more digs. Outwater's 21 digs paced the team, while Rachel Zawodny added 19 digs. Ami Milligan notched 33 assists and 16 digs for Albion.
Albion held Trine to .048, .047 and -.043 hitting percentages in the first three sets to take a 2-1 lead. The Britons hit a match-best .139 in the opening set, and used two four-point runs to spark their first-set victory. The Britons also closed the third set on a three-point run to go up 2-1 after the Thunder had taken the second set.
The Thunder were able to do just enough over the final two sets to gut out the victory. Neither team led by more than three in the fourth set, and the Britons rallied back from down 24-22 late to tie and force the win-by-two scenario. After being inserted into the lineup during the fourth set, Bowman scored the final two kills to extend the match to the deciding fifth set.
A five-point run sparked Trine to a 7-3 lead in the final set, but the Britons fought back to cut the Thunder lead to one on numerous occasions. A Bowman kill made the score 14-12, before a Konieczny kill cut the difference back to one. Bowman rose to the occasion once again to put away an emphatic final kill to send Trine home with the victory.
The Thunder conclude the regular-season tomorrow with two matches at Franklin College. Trine will face Anderson at 1 p.m., followed by the host Grizzlies at 3 p.m. The Thunder will be looking for their first season of 25-plus wins since 1999.
Trine will face Calvin in the MIAA Semifinals next Friday, Nov. 7 at 5:30 p.m. at Hope College.
