ROCHESTER, N.Y. - It was a huge weekend for the Trine University volleyball team as they won the 23rd annual RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) Volleyball Invitational. Trine went 4-0 in the tournament and are now 7-6 on the season.
Trine was the lone undefeated team in the 12 team tournament that included seven teams with winning records, and the three-time defending champion New York University.
In all four matches, Trine won the first set helping the Thunder establish their offense early. On Friday, the Thunder took down the University of Rochester, 3-1 (25-23, 21-25, 25-16, 25-16) and SUNY Potsdam, 3-1 (25-15, 24-26, 25-17, 25-16). Saturday saw Trine defeat host RIT 3-0 (25-16, 25-17, 25-19) and NYU 3-1 (25-20, 28-30, 25-19, 25-20).
Junior Betsy Irwin (Athens, Ohio/Alexander) was named Tournament MVP while sophomore Darcy Crabtree (Gaston, Ind./Wes-Del) was also named to the All-Tournament team. Trine was the only school with two players named.
Irwin led Trine with 60 kills and 13 blocks (4 solo, 9 assist) on the weekend, while leading the Thunder in kills in three of the four matches while hitting double digits in each game. Freshman Melanie Troyer (Elkhart, Ind./Elkhart Memorial) led Trine with 17 kills in the first game of the tournament against Rochester. Troyer went on to knock down 49 kills, including hitting double digits in three matches.
Crabtree let the Thunder with 64 digs over two days, notching double digit digs in each game, topping out with 20 against SUNY Potsdam.
Junior setter Sarah Radekin (Athens, Ohio/Alexander) notched 167 assists, topping 40 in the matches against Rochester (48) and NYU (47). Radekin also has a game and tournament-high 25 digs against NYU.
"We couldn't have done it without everyone on this team," coach Jamie Wozniak said. "This really was a team effort. Betsy and Darcy played great, but this weekend was a complete team victory."
Trine showed how dominate their offensive attack can be as they had a positive hitting percentage in all 15 sets during the tournament.
It was the first meeting between Trine and the four teams since the Thunder became an NCAA program.
Trine will return to action when the host MIAA opponent St. Mary's College on September 20 at 7:00 p.m.