As if facing the 21-1 St. Joseph Christian Lions on Monday wasn’t bad enough, the Trenton High School volleyball team returned to the court one night later to face Savannah, a team that hasn’t lost since Oct. 1.
Both matches ended in losses for Trenton, which fell to St. Joseph Christian 25-8, 25-15, 25-12 at home on Monday and 25-8, 25-10, 25-19 on the road in Savannah on Tuesday.
Trenton started slow against St. Joseph Christian, but improved as the match went along. Coach Pam Bowden was pleased with her team’s performance against a one-loss club despite the lop-sided nature of the scores.
“We played well despite the scores as an indication,” Bowden said. “St. Joe Christian is a very good team.”
Trenton was paced by five kills, three assists, three blocks, two digs and an ace from Evy McCullough in Monday’s loss. Ava Simpson added nine assists, two kills and an ace and Lilly Berti had three kills, an assist, an ace and two digs. Jessa Shipley and Kenzie Yuille each had four digs in the match.
Trenton’s junior varsity also fell to St. Joseph Christian, losing 25-14, 25-22. Ally Yoder had four kills and two aces to lead the JV while Nautica Dowling finished with three kills, an ace and a block and Kaylea Boyle tallied four assists and an ace. Abby Simpson had three aces for the JV.
By the third set against Savannah on Tuesday, Trenton was hitting on all cylinders. But the Bulldogs buried themselves early and were unable to come away with a win in any set.
Ava Simpson had seven assists and an ace and McCullough had five blocks, two kills and a dig. Trenton got three kills and a dig from Olivia Roberts, two kills and a dig from Mackenzee Epperson, one kill and three digs from Shipley and one kill and one dig from Berti. Yuille added four digs for the Bulldogs.
In lower varsity action, Trenton fell 25-10, 25-4 in the C game and 25-10, 25-9 in the JV game. Dowling had three kills and a block for the JV, which also got two kills and an ace from Yoder and three assists from Abby Simpson.
With the two varsity losses this week, Trenton dropped to 7-13 overall on the season.
The Bulldogs will be in Class 2, District 16 Tournament semifinal action next Tuesday in Carrollton. Trenton is seeded second in the tournament behind Carrollton, who the Bulldogs split with in their only two meetings – both at the Carrollton Tournament. Trenton fell to the Trojanettes in pool play before coming back to beat the host school in the championship later in the day.
Trenton is scheduled to play South Harrison in the semifinals on Tuesday. First serves for that district match are scheduled for 6 p.m.