Trinity Ladies extended their winning run in the Division One Women’s to seven games with a comfortable 3-0 win over fourth-placed Gardaí in Trinity this Sunday.
The game began with a long back-and-forth rally that set the tone for the remainder of the game. Neither team was able to put together a good run of serves as the lead changed hands constantly during the first set. The turning point came when Trinity’s players found themselves 14-12 down and rallied to win the next six points to give themselves a great platform from which to win the set. They went on to do so 25-19, with the impressive Stacey Nevin serving the winning point.
Gardaí came out much stronger in the second set and began to dominate Trinity at the net. With the score locked at 13-13, Trinity took the lead for the first time in the set – a lead they would not relinquish. Just as in the first set, Trinity began to break away. At 17-13 Gardaí called a time-out in order to stop the rot but couldn’t prevent Trinity from winning the set 25-18 and racing into a two set lead.
Trinity’s momentum carried into the third set and the victory was beginning to look ominous. However, some sloppy serving and miscommunication at the net allowed Gardaí recover a four-point deficit to take a 16-15 lead. Trinity showed the same steel that saw them pull away at the end of the first two sets and secured the final set with a 25-21 scoreline.
The result maintains Trinity’s 100 per cent record at the top of the league with seven wins from seven, with only two sets dropped in the process.
Elsewhere, the men’s team still sit slumped in the bottom half of the table after a 3-1 defeat to a Gardaí side that began the day one place below the students in the table. The side did not sustain a strong start, during which they took the first set 25-15, slumping to three consecutive set losses for a sixth league defeat of the season.
