The 2024-25 Lady Cougars pose with their new hardware on Saturday evening after defeating South Decatur at Edinburgh High School on Oct. 26, 2024.
Jeff Lubker | For The Tribune
The team celebrates winning the regional championship on Saturday night at Edinburgh against South Decatur.
Jeff Lubker | For The Tribune
Trinity’s Addison Darlage (1) sets up her teammate Rachel Bonde (20) during the regional final match with South Decatur on Saturday night.
Jeff Lubker | For The Tribune
Madison Keith soars for the Lady Cougars in the regional final against South Decatur on Saturday night.
Jeff Lubker | For The Tribune
Trinity’s Ava Blomenberg sets herself up for the hit on Saturday evening against South Decatur in the regional final.
Jeff Lubker | For The Tribune
Trinity’s Rachel Bonde rises for the hit on Saturday against South Decatur in the regional final.
Jeff Lubker | For The Tribune
Trinity’s Laura Roeder made sure to get the dig on Saturday in the regional final against South Decatur.
Jeff Lubker | For The Tribune
Trinity’s Presley Meyer serves for the team in the regional final against South Decatur on Saturday night.
Jeff Lubker | For The Tribune
EDINBURGH — After Trinity Lutheran’s volleyball team defeated Oldenburg Academy in the first round of the sectional, Coach Janet VanLiew said, “We’ve got six matches left.”
That was the number of matches it was going to take for the Cougars to win the school’s first Class 1A state championship.
That number is now three after the Cougars eliminated South Decatur 25-15, 25-9, 25-9 in the Edinburgh Regional Saturday night. It took Trinity only 55 minutes to win the match.
The Cougars now turn their attention to the Jasper Semistate where they will face Springs Valley at 10 a.m. Saturday. Indianapolis Lutheran will play Christian Academy at noon, and the winners will play at 7 p.m. for the right to advance to Ball State University on November 9 for the state championship.
“It’s a lot of fun for the kids,” VanLiew said after the championship. “It’s a great group of girls. They just buy into working hard every single day. I coached some of them in fifth grade, so we’ve been together a long time. It is nice to be able to share it with those girls. That have worked hard.”
This was Trinity’s first regional title since 2021 when the five seniors on the roster, Addison Darlage, Ava Blomenberg, Laura Roeder, Madison Keith and Carson Bowling, were freshmen.
“They have worked really hard for a lot of years,” VanLiew said. “They’ve got kids that push them every day. What is kind of unique about this team is that they are great group of seniors, and they are pushed literally every day by kids that want to play and are very good.”
They all said the regional title was special to them.
Trinity jumped out to 5-0 leads in the first and third sets and steadily built their leads. The only time they trailed the entire match was at 4-3 and 5-4 in the second set, and they followed that up with an 8-0 run.
Aggressive serving has been a trademark of the Cougars all season and Trinity players served 20 aces Saturday night.
“We concentrate not just on consistency, but on aggressive serves to zones,” VanLiew said. “I do some scouting, look at other teams and see what their weaknesses are, and then we can serve to those zones. That makes a huge difference.”
Two of those aces came from Laura Roeder at the start of the first set. She finished 20-21-6 in serves and topped Trinity in digs with 12.
Roeder spoke on the week of practice leading up to Saturday.
“Our game plan is always to come out strong,” she said. “This week we worked on a lot of serving. We came in (earlier Saturday) and passed and served. We needed to focus on that and we’re hoping that it will continue to get better and take us through the rest of the season.”
“(Decatur) had a different defense than we’re used to seeing, and I think we came out and execute our serving,” Roeder said. “This week we’re going to look at who we’re playing and focus on where we need to hit shots.”
Another ace by Carson Bowling capped off a 5-0 run that put Trinity on top 15-5, and Madison Keith had a kill for set point.
“Janet told me to keep serving to zone one and I got three aces in a row right there,” Bowling said. “Definitely I had a good serving night. This is super exciting. We had good passes which led to good sets, which led to good hits, and we all just played together as a team like we should”
VanLiew said, “They scored more points in the first set than we had planned on. They know how to win, and that’s what I told the girls. They are a little more unconventional than what we’re used to, but they know how to win, so obviously they know how to do some things.”
Keith, who was 9-9-6 in attacks, said her team was determined that they weren’t going to lose a set on this night.
“We got out here and we got it done. We played really well all around. I don’t think there is anything we could have done better, and it didn’t matter who was on the other side of the net. We were not losing; it wasn’t going to happen tonight.”
Decatur held a 5-4 lead in the second set when Bowling had a kill to tie the score, then she served seven straight points. During that rally she served four aces and Keith had two kills.
Bowling also had a kill for set point. Roeder served two aces and Bowling had two kills in helping the Cougars take a 5-0 lead in the third set. Darlage served back-to-back aces when the Cougars increased their lead to 18-5.
She was 7-8-3 in serves for the match and had 27 assists.
Darlage said, “This feels really nice. It’s been a couple years since I’ve been (to state) and I’ve missed it, and it feels amazing. We felt great and had confidence. No matter what, we were going to give it our all and we practiced hard, and we were going to win. We had that attitude.”
Trinity had 30 attack kills with Bowling having nine, Blomberg seven, Keith six and Bailey Bonde five. Bowling had three blocks and Bonde had two.
Blomenberg served match point and was 11-11-7 in attacks for the night.
“It feels amazing. Nothing compares to it. It takes teamwork,” Blomenberg said. “This team is so special, and if we keep it up, we can go really far. All of our hard work has paid off, and I’m really excited to see where the team goes from here.”
Trinity is 27-8 going to Jasper and Decatur ended their season with a 27-5 record.
Edinburgh Regional — Saturday
Trinity Lutheran 3, South Decatur 0
Trinity Lutherans def. South Decatur 25-15, 25-9, 25-9
Serve-Attempt-Aces
Serving: Carson Bowling 18-19-7, Laura Roeder 20-21-6, Presley Meyer 10-10-2, team 65-73-20
Attempts-Total-Kills
Hitting: Carson Bowling 12-17-9, Ava Blomenberg 11-11-7, Madison Keith 9-9-6, Bailey Bonde 8-8-5, team 52-60-30
Digs: Laura Roeder 12, Addison Darlage 9, Madison Keith, 7.
Assists: Addison Darlage, 27.
Blocks: Carson Bowling 3, Bonde 2