Titans escape with a sweep

Another dogfight, another victory.

The Dickinson Trinity Titans were pushed to extra points in two games, but improved to 10-0 with a three-game sweep of Bowman County in Region 7 volleyball Thursday night at Knights of Columbus Center.

"Our kids again stepped up when the chips were down," Trinity coach Brad Foss said. "They stayed focused and played at a higher level. When they are focused, they pass better, set better and make better attacks. The little things get cleaned up. I little bit of luck never hurt either."

The Bulldogs (10-2), who sit atop District 13, only fell to the District 14 leading Titans, 26-24, 25-19, 27-25, but losing by slim margins was not acceptable for Bowman County coach Kent Harding, who expected more out of his girls.

"We didn't come to play and get swept and play them close," Harding said. "We knew neither team was going to get beat by a lot of points. We should have stole Game 1. In Game 2, our back row just quit moving."

The Bulldogs should have stole Game 3 as well, holding a lead for most of the game, until the Titans' Shannon Ernst and Noelle Steiner took over the game.

Tied at 18-18, Ernst started the Trinity rally with a kill to take the lead.

Steiner, a senior middle hitter, tallied back-to-back kills on the next two points to give Trinity a 21-18 lead.

The Bulldogs reclaimed the lead 22-21 briefly before the two sides traded points until the end.

"Shannon and Noelle hit well down the line tonight and got the ball in key possessions," Foss said. "They did a nice job attacking."

Using soft touches, Steiner tallied four kills down the stretch to pick up the win and finish the game with 12 kills.

Ernst, a junior outside hitter, had three hard kills during the late run in Game 3 and finished the game with nine total kills.

"Noelle is really good at reading open spots," Foss said. "I want her to hit harder but she tips and pushes the ball to open spots well."

Despite holding on for win in Game 1, the Titans struggled to serve early with the ball landing in the net more often than the opponent's side of the net.

That all changed in Game 2 when Ernst registered back-to-back aces to spark an early Trinity run.

"We have been having trouble with serves lately," Ernst said. "We get too excited when we get on rolls. We get out of control.

"(In Game 2) I saw the deep corner open so I went after it. It's hard to cover the corner on the serve receive."

The Titans registered six aces in Game 2 with Ernst finishing the game with four.

"Shannon not only had some aces but a couple big kills that sparked us," Foss said. "Tonight she showed a lot of emotion and energy. We wanted to show more tonight than we did on Tuesday."

Senior defensive specialist Michaela Kovash had two aces and seven digs for the Titans while junior middle hitter Breanna Messer notched 11 digs and five kills.

Leading the way for Bowman County was Allison Hanson who posted a game-high 13 kills. Stephanie Lockert had a game-high 18 assists.

"Our blockers were kind of slow and they expected the back row to dig," Harding said. "Our back row needed more help. We can't give up free shots on the back row and let them find holes."