Facing Trinity Lutheran on its home court for the second Saturday in a row, Edinburgh’s volleyball team knew it had to up its game to topple the Cougars.
In Saturday’s Class A sectional semifinals, the Lancers had a strong second set and started out competitive in the third set, but it wasn’t enough to pull off the upset. Trinity advanced to the championship match with a 25-13, 25-19, 25-13 victory.
In the first set, Trinity built an 8-1 lead and never trailed the rest of the way. The second set was a different story.
The score was tied nine times early, with neither team pulling ahead by more than two points. Edinburgh’s Taylor Tatlock scored her fourth point of the set to make it 11-11.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
Trinity’s Abby Schult then had a kill on an overpass, and the Cougars maintained the lead from there.
“I think we had some defensive play out of Emily Chappelow that really helped us,” Lancers coach Tina Bottorff said of her team’s competitiveness in the second set. “She stepped up, and it made a difference on the right side, and I think that our defensive play stepped up quite a bit in that second set.”
With the score tied at 7 in the third set, Trinity got three kills and a block by Hannah Sabotin, a kill by Schult and an ace from Ashley Goecker to create some separation. The Cougars cruised from there.
“We stayed with them for a while,” Bottorff said of the third set. “Trinity is just a great, solid, solid club, so we give a lot of respect to them. We played pretty well. I’m not completely disappointed with our play. I know we’re a young team, so we look forward to getting everybody back next year and using this to motivate us to get better. ”
Edinburgh, which did not have any seniors, finish the season with a 9-23 record.
