Seniors help Trinity hold off New England
Volleyball has nothing in common with baseball. But, some Dickinson Trinity volleyball players sure do embody some baseball traits.By: Dustin Monke, The Dickinson Press
- Kelsey Deichert
Volleyball has nothing in common with baseball.
But, some Dickinson Trinity volleyball players sure do embody some baseball traits.
On Tuesday night, senior Nikki Grinsteinner was the Titans’ home run hitter and junior Alyson Schieno was their flame-throwing closer.
Grinsteinner had 11 kills and Schieno, who didn’t play until the third set, had an ace and two of her four kills late in the match to help Trinity break a tie and capture a 25-11, 25-17, 25-21 win over New England in the regular-season finale for both teams at Knights of Columbus Activities Center.
“Our intensity level was really high tonight,” Grinsteinner said.
And why not? It was senior night and the Titans (18-15) have been playing their best volleyball of the season going into the District 14 tournament.
“We wanted to really show what we have,” Grinsteinner said. “Our intensity level was really high tonight.”
Trinity exploded to a big lead in the first set, scoring the first seven points and building a 17-2 lead before New England could muster any kind of offense.
In the second set, the Titans again scored the first seven points and climbed out to a 15-3 lead.
New England, however, didn’t go quietly this time, storming back through an 8-2 run and trimmed the deficit to 19-14 thanks to a pair of kills from junior Bryanna Rasch and an ace from senior India Fitterer.
“We started slow, obviously, but we’re a team where we’re very up and down. We get down on ourselves,” New England head coach Ivy Fitterer said. “We fought back.”
The Tigers (15-20) never got closer than five points though, and went down 2-0 after giving up three points on errors late in the set.
New England was a changed team by the third set, keeping pace with Trinity and even leading 10-7 before the Titans turned things around with three kills from Grinsteinner and two aces from senior Andrea Jirges. Nine unanswered points helped Trinity take a 16-10 lead.
The Tigers, however, again came roaring back. They had the game tied at 19-19.
“I was impressed with how we were able to overcome the mistakes we made and end the game the way we did,” Ivy Fitterer said.
Enter Schieno.
The 5-foot-9 junior powered down a pair of kills and followed them up with an ace to put Trinity ahead 22-20. Andrea Jirges and senior Kendra Mortenson added a pair of kills to seal the sweep.
“She (Schieno) ended up coming through at the end, which is what we needed,” Trinity head coach Rayma Braaten said.
New England has the No. 4 seed in District 13 and meets No. 5 Hettinger-Scranton in the quarterfinals at 3 p.m. next Monday at Bowman County High School.
Trinity has District 14’s No. 3 seed and takes on Killdeer at 7 p.m. Friday at Richardton-Taylor High School.
Grinsteinner said the sweep of New England, paired with last week’s 3-1 win over District 13 No. 1 seed Heart River shows the Titans they are putting things together at the right time.
“That’s what we need going into tournament time is confidence,” she said.
NE 11 17 21 — 0
Trinity 25 25 25 — 3
Kills: NE, Bryanna Rasch 5, Erin Volk 5, Gabbi Hanson 4. T, Nikki Grinsteinner 11, Kelsey Deichert 6, Aly Schieno 4, Kendra Mortenson 4.
Blocks: NE, Kristen Neprash 1. T, Grinsteinner 2, Mortenson 2, Mariah Quintus 1.
Aces: NE, Hannah Nordby 2. T, Deichert 4, Andrea Jirges 2, Quintus 1, Schieno 1.
Digs: NE, Nordby 19, India Fitterer 8, Neprash 8. T, Brandi Ouellette 5, Grinsteinner 4, Quintus 2, Deichert 2.
Assists: NE, Fitterer 17. T, Sammy Gordon 26.
Records: NE 15-20. T 18-15.
Tags: new england tigers, sports, titans, volleyball, preps
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