ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University women's volleyball team celebrated seniors Jacqueline Baughman [Lake Orion, Mich. / Lutheran Northwest], Chloe Behm [Albion, Ind. / Central Noble] and Zharia Dodson [Gary, Ind. / Bowman Academy] on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, the Thunder were defeated in the match 3-1 by Albion College.
The loss drops Trine to the number four seed in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) Tournament and Albion holds claim to the number three seed. The Thunder wrapped up the regular season with a 16-15 record, 5-3 in MIAA action. The Britons finish 19-6 and 6-2.
Albion jumped out to a 10-5 lead in the first set, but the Thunder battled back and eventually evened the match with a kill by the senior Behm. With the set even at 18, the teams traded points back-and-forth until the Thunder tallied the final four points to win 25-22. Trine had a match-high 16 kills in the first, with a .282 team hitting percentage.
The Britons were able to flex their muscles offensively in the second with 16 kills to just one error in the 25-20 win. After being down 16-9, the Thunder were able to work their way back to within two at 21-19 thanks to kills from Behm, Baughman, Francesca Queary [Midland, Mich. / H.H. Dow] and Olivia Jolliffe [Warren, Mich. / Cousino].
A 6-1 scoring spurt for the Britons gave them an early lead once again in the third set at 11-5, forcing Trine into a timeout. Jocelynn Nicholls [Montgomery, Mich. / Camden-Frontier] threw down five kills in the 25-21 defeat to fall behind two sets to one.
The fourth set was more of the same for Albion, as they went on to take the match 3-1 with a 25-22 set four victory. The Thunder were tasked with overcoming an early deficit once again, but were unable to do so in the match-deciding set. A timeout at the 17-14 mark by the Thunder sparked some life into the offense and six Briton errors aided Trine to take a 22-21 lead, but Albin took the set 25-22 with four consecutive points.
Defensively, freshman Samantha Carlin [Celina, Ohio / Celina] had a team and career-high 35 digs in the match. She was able to find her way to a variety of balls to keep rallies alive. Queary led the Thunder with 11 kills and Hannah Sands [Jonesville, Mich. / Jonesville] connected for 10. Baughman finished the regular season with a 40-assist match, her 10th 40-plus assist match of the season. She needs 31 more for 1,000 this season.
The fourth-seeded Thunder will host Adrian College in the MIAA First Round on Tuesday, November 2 in Hershey Hall. First serve is scheduled for 7 pm.