Notre Dame, South Harrison fall to Trinity in sectionals

Add in the attacks of Arlie Humphreys in the front row, and it was more than South Harrison could handle in Trinity Christian’s 25-13, 25-20, 25-18 victory over South Harrison in the Class A Region II Section 2 tournament on Tuesday at South Harrison Middle School.

“I told them, especially No. 10 (Luciana Citerone), I told them, ‘All of them can serve.’ They’re a very well-rounded team, but No. 10 especially,” South Harrison coach Breanna Sears said. “She had that nice jump serve, and it just soared to the net and it powered down. I told them they had to be low, move their feet, watch it and adjust to that ball and not be afraid to dig for it, not be afraid to get on the ground for it, move and follow that ball, and it was tough. Reading it, that’s a really hard serve to read. It was a lot of trying to get where they needed to be, and it didn’t end up in our favor.”

Before that, Trinity Christian defeated Notre Dame 25-19, 19-25, 25-20, 22-25, 15-6. Both Notre Dame and South Harrison are eliminated from the tournament.

Versus South Harrison, Trinity opened the first set on a 6-1 run and later stretched its lead to 11-4 following consecutive aces from Emma Jenkins.

A kill by South Harrison’s Faith Sears trimmed the Hawks’ deficit to 16-10, but the Warriors closed the first set on a 9-3 run.

A kill by Piper Dotson that barely made it over the net helped the Hawks open the second a set on a 6-3 run.

But with the second set tied at 7, a kill by Trinity’s Marlo Flecker started a 6-1 Trinity run as they took a 13-8 lead on an ace from Lainey Jackson.

“Trinity was good at, when they would hit, they would come up with their shoulders and they would turn last minute, angle it and get that power shot,” coach Sears said. “I told them when we go out to block we needed to make sure we were covering that and angling back at them, because if not, it was going to shoot back to our back row and that was really hard to cover.”

But the Hawks drew closer, getting as close as 13-11 on an ace from Delainey Lowther and 15-13 following a kill from Emma Sharpe at the right side of the front row.

But then Citerone proved she can do more than just serve well, as a kill from her was followed by an ace from Jillian Benn, and a kill from Humphreys gave the Warriors an 18-13 lead.

A kill from South Harrison’s Molly Thomas cut the Hawk’s deficit to 23-16, but down the stretch, 24-20 was the closest the Warriors could get. A kill from Marlo Flecker concluded the set.

Early in the third set, South Harrison’s Emily Haddix had two kills and a block, the last of which gave the Hawks a 9-6 lead.

South Harrison still led 12-10 on an ace from Sharpe and 17-13 on a kill from Haddix to the open center of the floor.

With the third set tied at 18, the Warriors closed on a 7-0 run that featured two aces from Jackson and a kill from Jenkins.

In the Notre Dame-Trinity match, Notre Dame opened the first set on a 5-1 run and stretched it to 6-2 on an illegal hit by the Warriors.

With the set tied at 12, aces from Notre Dame’s Austyn Paugh and a Trinity Christian attack error put the Irish ahead 15-12.

But with the set tied at 19, the Warriors closed on a 6-0 run, with two aces from Citerone.

Citerone was far from done. Her three aces in the second set helped the Warriors open the second set on an 8-2 run.

“We got under as many times as we could, but I said in the end, ‘Just get it up in the air. I don’t care where you get it, as long as it goes up,’” Notre Dame coach Amy Lanham said of Citerone’s serving. “We just couldn’t control our serve receive on her. She killed us.”

Trinity led 11-6, but a 5-2 Notre Dame run trimmed the lead to 13-11 on an ace by Angelina Policano.

This time, with the set tied at 19, it was the Fighting Irish who closed the set on a 6-0 run. Paugh had a kill during the run, and the Irish took advantage of several Trinity errors.

The early aspect of the third set was much different. An ace by Paugh and a block by Emily Besten at the middle of the net helped the Irish open the third set on a 5-0 run.

A kill by Piper Fryer gave Notre Dame a 9-6 lead.

The Irish got as close as 18-15 following an attack error by the Warriors, but mostly due to Notre Dame attack and service errors, the Warriors closed on a 7-5 run.

In the fourth set, a block by Besten and an ace from Stormee Frymier that barely made it over the net helped the Irish open on a 4-2 run.

Later, Trinity got as close as 14-12, but consecutive kills by Besten, one in the middle of the front row and the other to the right of the back row, gave the Irish a 16-12 lead.

A tip kill from Policano gave the Irish a 23-19 lead, but the Warriors went on a 3-0 run. A Trinity attack error and an ace from Molly Korn concluded the set.

Trailing 2-0, Notre Dame was able to tie the set at 2 on a kill by Fryer. But the Warriors went on a 5-0 run, a run in which Citerone, whose line drive serve was effective for the Warriors earlier, served two aces.

“I thought we came out strong, enthusiastic, and I thought we had it, and then they got a good couple points, and we couldn’t get the momentum back,” Lanham said. “We lost that momentum and couldn’t get it back.”

After a Trinity Christian service error, a 6-1 run by the Warriors extended their lead to 13-4.

Notre Dame, trying to keep its season alive, drew a bit closer with a Trinity service and attack error, but following a kill from Sharp, an attack hit our bounds by the Irish ended the match.