As anyone who has been around high school sports knows, you can play bad and win, and you can play well and lose.

It was some of the latter Monday night for the Trinity Lutheran volleyball team as the Cougars fell to Bedford North Lawrence 20-25, 25-12,  25-23, 25-21.

"I think the strongest part of our match tonight was the net play," coach Sarah Clark said. "I was really proud of our net play. We had a lot of blocks and a lot of kills. I wish our passing would have been a little more on target. We really ran our setter to death tonight.

"Bedford runs a very quick offense; a lot of ones and a lot of twos, a lot of quick stuff in the middle."
The Stars held a 12-6 lead in the first game before the Cougars took a 13-12 lead on a block by Brittany Hirtzel. Hirtzel had attack kills on Trinity's final three points of the first game.

BNL jumped on top 9-2 in the second game and led all the way. BNL held a 14-6 lead in the third game before the Cougars rallied and used an ace by Sam Stuckwisch to close BNL's lead to 16-14. The Cougars trailed 24-23 when the Stars scored game point.

The Stars broke a 5-5 tie in the fourth game with a pair of points to lead the rest of the way. BNL held a 23-15 lead before an ace by Stuckwisch closed the gap to 23-17, and another ace by Dakota Richart left the Cougars down 24-20 before the Stars put the match away.

Clark said she is pleased with the progress of her team. "A lot of these teams we play have juniors and seniors, and we're a very young team. Basically, what we're playing is our JV team. This would be a JV team in the bigger schools. We've only got one senior, and we have two freshmen starting. I've only got 18 eligible players, and 12 of them are freshmen and sophomores. The girls are being force-fed but they are doing an awesome job, and we've improved so much."

The Cougars had 33 attack kills with Hirtzel leading with 11 and Kendall Lambring had 10.
Stuckwisch had four aces and 29 assists.

The Cougars are 9-7 and will travel to Crothersville tonight, will be home to Hauser Thursday, and will play host to Borden, University and Rising Sun Saturday for the Cougar Invitational, beginning at 9 a.m.

Results

Bedford def. Trinity 20-25, 25-12, 25-23, 25-21.
TL serving: Stuckwisch 16-17-4, Richart 14-14-3, Onken 12-13, team 65-68-9; hitting: Lambring 46-49-10, Hirtzel 19-21-11, White 15-17-8, team 99-113-33; assists: Stuckwisch 29.

JV: BNL won 21-256, 25-8, 15-12.
TL serving: Curry 10-12-2, Elkins 9-9-2, Hackman 7-8-2, Redicker 6-8-5, team 38-43-10, hitting: Hackman 15-23-4, Franke 12-16-6, Curry 9-13-3, team 41-60-13.