BOURBON -ÊAlthough the Triton volleyball team did not win the regional Saturday, the Trojans made school history by winning the regional semifinal match over Adams Central 2-15, 15-11, 15-6. The Trojans fell to Michigan City Marquette in the regional final match 15-7, 15-2.

After losing the first game to Adams Central 2-15, Triton fought back in the second game. The Trojans jumped out to an early 4-2 lead after Beth Workman, Rachel Speicher and Janell Salisbury combined to serve the Triton points.

"We had a lot of trouble in the first game," said Triton coach Gayle Perry. "We played not to lose instead of playing to win. Some of it was nerves, but we were busy beating ourselves.

"In the second game we played to win."

The two teams see-sawed back and forth until the score was tied at eight. Then Workman, Emily Yankovich and Missy Nifong combined to give Triton a 13-8 lead. Adams Central got as close as 13-11, but Rachel Speicher served up two consecutive points to give the Trojans a 15-11 win to tie the match.

Triton then jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the third game of the match as Workman and Salisbury served up points for Triton.

Then Yankovich stepped to the serving line.

She served seven straight points to put Triton up 10-0. Adams Central mounted a small comeback by scoring four consecutive points, but Rachel Speicher negated the rally by serving four straight points of her own to make the score 14-4.

The Jets managed to score two more points, but Missy Nifong put the final nail in the coffin as she served up the final point to give the Trojans a 15-6 win.

"Once we decided that if we were going down, we going to go swinging, we were okay," said Perry. "We grew today. We overcame nerves and came from behind to win. It was a good match for us.

For the first time in school history, Triton had won a regional semifinal game, and the 1999 Trojans boldly went where no team had gone before - the regional final game.

However, the Trojans had one problem. They had to face the Michigan City Marquette Blazers.

When the two teams met earlier in the season at the Blue River Tournament, Marquette handed Triton its worst loss of the year 15-0, 15-2.

In the first game of the regional final, Triton jumped out to an early 3-0 lead. However, the Blazers were not down for long as they came back to take a 5-3 lead.

The Trojans got as close as 8-5, but then Marquette's Lori Lewalski stepped to the line and served up five straight points. Triton scored two more points, but they were unable to overcome the lead the Blazers had built. Marquette won the game 15-7.

"We held them off in the first game," said Perry. "We hung in there with them and played hard/ We strated the match strong, but we just couldn't stop them."

Although Triton played hard against the Blazers, the second game belonged to Marquette. The Blazers allowed the Trojans to score just two points in the match, winning 15-2 to advance to the state semifinals Saturday.

"Marquette always plays hard," said Perry. "They are a great team. They have played together for four years and it shows.

"I thought we battled hard and played them better than we did last time. They are just a phenomenal team. If they don't win state, I'll be surprised." [[In-content Ad]]