Tiger Volleyball Wins Twice to Open National Invitational

San Antonio - The Trinity Tigers won two hard-fought matches Friday in the opening day of their Trinity University National Invitational in Sams Gym.

Trinity rallied from an 0-2 deficit, and a match point, to beat No. 22 Texas-Dallas 28-30, 24-26, 25-23, 25-15, 16-14 in the second match of the day. In the opener with Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, the Tigers overcame a total of five set points in the first two stanzas to win 29-27, 29-27, 25-21.

The Tigers improved to 20-9 and will take on 17th-ranked New York University at 11 a.m. Saturday. Trinity concludes the tournament with a 5:30 meeting with 16th-ranked Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Trinity senior setter Caiti Troyer registered 34 assists against Claremont, and 58 in the UT-Dallas match, for a total of 92 on the day. Troyer has 1,066 assists this season, and became just the fifth Trinity player to record 1,000 or more assists in multiple seasons. Last year, Troyer dished out 1,527 assists, and she now has accounted for 3,212 career assists (fifth all time in Tiger history). Troyer picked up 12 digs against UT-Dallas, and 10 in the Claremont match.

Junior middle blocker Maddy Hazelwood hit .478 against the UT-Dallas Comets, with 13 kills, two errors, and 23 total attacks. Hazelwood also blocked nine shots. Sophomore outside hitter Madison McMahon led the match with 26 kills, and had a Trinity-best 18 digs and two aces. Junior right-side player Catherine Found and junior middle blocker Desie Baker each put up 10 kills. Found had six blocks, and Baker made five.  Sophomore libero Meredith Erwin had 13 digs, and senior defensive specialist Emily Hilliard made 12. First-year setter Maryn Swierc chalked up 10 digs.

McMahon hit .405 in the Claremont match, with 20 kills, three errors, on 42 total attacks. She also recorded eight digs and two blocks. Swierc was the digs leader, with 13. Hazelwood fired in six service aces, and blocked six shots.

Prior to the match with UT-Dallas, four seniors were honored: Hilliard, Busch, Troyer, and Tayler Malloy, who was injured prior to the start of the season.