For the fourth consecutive season, the Trenton High School volleyball team reached the district semifinals. It is a small step in bringing the Trenton program out of the dregs of district irrelevancy, but a team that won just two district games in its first 21 years of existence is now accustomed to battling for a spot in the district championship match.
And boy did Trenton battle.
On Wednesday night in the district semifinals, Trenton came out and took the opening game from top-seeded Mid-Buchanan and nearly put the Dragons away in the second set before ultimately falling 25-23, 23-25, 15-25.
“I am so proud of our team,” Trenton Head Coach Pam Bowden said. “We worked all season to get to this point. We came in as the four seed and played an outstanding game against the first seed. The girls played with 110 percent determination tonight. We may have fallen just short, but we made a statement for Trenton volleyball.”
The close match was just the latest of many signs that the Trenton volleyball team is no longer the also-ran it once was. Trenton finished the season with an 11-18 overall record. While the mark was well below .500, Trenton posted its third-straight double-digit win total and did so this year with a first-year head coach in Bowden and five first-year starters.
The 11 wins mark the second-highest win total in program history behind the 12-win 2017 team and just ahead of last year’s 10-win team. The double-digit win totals in each of the past three seasons are the only 10-plus win seasons in the program’s history.
Trenton remained winless in district semifinal games, falling to 0-6 all time in those matches. However, Wednesday’s match is the closest Trenton has come to playing for a district championship.
Evy McCullough led the way, tallying eight kills, five blocks, a dig and three aces. Ava Simpson had 11 assists and Libby Fewins finished with three aces, two kills, a block and three digs. Trenton also got two kills, two aces, three digs, a block and an assist from Allena Allen. Kenzie Yuille added a kill and two digs, Olivia Roberts had a kill and two blocks and Mackenzie Klinginsmith finished with an ace and a dig.
Trenton topped Hamilton 25-19, 25-21 on Monday to place itself in the semifinals.
Simpson sparked Trenton’s offense in the win, handing out seven assists to a variety of teammates. Roberts had three kills and three aces and McCullough had three kills to go with an ace, a block and two assists of her own. Allen had two kills, two digs and an ace and Fewins had two kills, four aces and two assists. Trenton also got one kill, one ace, one assist and one dig from Klinginsmith. Natalie Ricker had two digs and Jessa Shipley had one dig.
“I am very proud of the level of effort from the girls tonight,” Bowden said of the victory over Hamilton. “As is evident from the stats, this was very much a team effort.”