A coach always hopes their team can swing momentum after a crucial time out.
But Dickinson Trinity volleyball coach Brad Foss probably wasn't thinking the Titans would take his words to heart the way they did when he took an early time out midway through Game 1 of Trinity's 3-0 victory against Beulah on Tuesday.
However, the breather turned the game completely on its axis.
Trailing 18-14, Foss called a time out gave a simple speech every coach falls back on from time to time.
"The way I explained it to them, they were playing not to lose instead of attacking and playing to win," Foss said.
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The 30-second speech worked wonders as the Titans reeled off 11 consecutive points and came back to beat the Miners 25-18.
Trinity sophomore outside hitter Breanna Messer, who led the team with nine kills, said the Titans' mood changed after the quick pep talk.
"We really got intense after that time out," Messer said.
Trinity beat Beulah 25-18, 25-18, 25-19 at Knights of Columbus Activities Center to move to 19-6 overall and 3-0 in District 14 play.
"It's a big district win," Foss said.
In District 14 games, the Titans have yet to play Killdeer and Hazen, which is 22-1 overall after a victory over Killdeer Tuesday night.
"Now we can go for where we want to be in the tournament," Foss said.
Beulah coach Lou Hansana said he was excited that his team came out strong and got the early lead.
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However, he knew eventually Trinity would wake up.
"I was expecting them to come out and fire on us right away," Hansana said. "We knew sooner or later, they were going to start firing on us."
But again in Game 2, it looked like Beulah had found a hole in the Trinity defense. The Miners stuck with Trinity, but had trouble capitalizing on its mistakes down the stretch.
Trinity had a 16-15 lead and reeled off a 7-2 run sparked by several Beulah errors to gain a comfortable lead.
"We even had some peaks and valley's later on," Foss said. "We have to play aggressive for us to be good."
Trinity climbed to an early lead and didn't look back in Game 3.
"They knew what they needed to do," Hansana said. "Unfortunatley things didn't work out for us."
