ALMA, Mich. – After a week of no game action, the Trine University women's volleyball team recorded a 3-1 victory over Alma College on Wednesday night. Sophomore Catherine Dobies made her presence known on the court with 16 kills on 41 attempts with just one error. She also added an ace, nine digs and a block assist to her ledger in a 17.5-point evening.
The win moves Trine to 11-10 overall and 3-4 in Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) play. The victory moves the Thunder into a tie for the fifth-seed with Kalamazoo College and locks their spot in the postseason tournament. By way of winning their head-to-head contest earlier in the season, Trine would win the tiebreaker with the Hornets for the five seed if needed. The Scots of Alma fall to 6-18 on the year and 1-7 in league action.
The Thunder jumped out to an early lead in set number one and took a 12-7 lead off a pair of aces by Kailee Cornell. Alma got back to within one coming out of the break at 15-14, but Trine was able to remain in front for the duration of the set one win with consistent play from the outside. At the end of the first, the Thunder came away with a 25-21 win.
The second set would not go as well for the visiting team and Trine ultimately dropped their only set of the match by a score of 25-18. A string of seven points in a row for Alma allowed them to get ahead 11-5 and the lead would continue to grow through the end of the set. It would be the only set of the night where the Scots had a better hitting percentage than the Thunder.
The team would rebound in a big way in the third with a 25-20 set win. It was in the third where Trine had their best hitting percentage of the match at .280 with nine kills in 25 total attempts (two errors). Six service aces, including a pair by Kacie Van Kalker to end the set, aided the Thunder in the victory.
A team-high 15 kills in the fourth helped to put the match away in short order with a convincing 25-14 win in set number four. Three kills in four points by Dobies extended the Trine lead to 14-8. A kill by Olivia Jolliffe bookended a spurt of six in a row for the Thunder to go up 23-13 and Maya Toma put the Scots to bed with the match-clinching score.
Dobies paced the offense with 16 kills with Jolliffe and Cassidy Victor in tow with nine and eight kills each. Of the team's 68 digs, 22 came from Van Kalker. Cornell and Joslynn Battle distributed assists fairly evenly, with Cornell at 20 and Battle with 19.
Senior day for the Thunder takes place on Saturday, October 29 in the regular season finale against the Olivet College Comets. First serve is scheduled for 1 pm.
