Issue date: 9/29/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Alex Turco Junior middle-hitter Kristen Chynoweth jumps for the ball during a match against Centre College on Sunday afternoon in the Lilly Center. DePauw won 3-1 in the last game of the weekend tournament.

After the Saturday night losses to No. 13 Colorado College and No. 18 Southwestern University, the Tigers left their black home uniforms in the dirty laundry and came out Sunday with fresh white ones.

Along with the new uniforms came a new look for the Tigers on the court. As a result, the Tigers were able to beat No. 11 Trinity University (Texas) in a three-set sweep and followed it up in the afternoon with a 3-1 victory over Centre College.

Senior defensive specialist Kate Carrico said the Tigers not only ditched the black uniforms, a normal switch in a two-day tournament, but the team improved its attitude on Sunday.

"Not that we weren't focused or didn't want to win the games on Saturday, but we just couldn't overcome some frustrations; we let mistakes get us down," Carrico said. "Whereas on Sunday I think we played with a much better overall consistency of our mentality that was able to help propel us to playing even keel the whole match."

The victory over Trinity was only the second time the volleyball team has beaten Trinity since the two teams first met in 1991. Head coach Deb Zellers had not beaten the rivals from Texas as a coach and was a player during the only other DePauw victory. Trinity commands the series record at 24-2.

With four seniors from last year's squad - which fell to Trinity in the Southern Athletic Collegiate Conference Championship - watching from the stands, the victory marked a special moment for the Tigers' current seniors.

"It was one thing that I really hoped to accomplish this year and before I left DePauw's program and I know Katey Larson feels the same way," Carrico said.

In the weekend matches, senior right side hitter Katey Larson led the team with 40 kills, while junior middle hitter Kristen Chynoweth and freshman outside hitter Katie Petrovich were close behind with 37 and 35 kills, respectively. Junior setter Ali Smith totaled 161 assists in the four matches with fellow junior Madison Hoenig tallying 101 digs on the defensive side in the libero position.

Hosted in the Lilly Center, the SCAC East/West Divisional brought together eight conference teams - four from the East and West respectively - with each team playing the four teams from the other division.

Playing in her first conference matches, Petrovich said she was impressed with the competition that the SCAC teams offered.

"I didn't know what to really expect going in because I have never even heard of some of the teams before," Petrovich said. "They were all competitive and it was really fun to just get out there and play some teams that were able to push us to a higher level."

The Tigers (14-4, 2-2) will continue conference play this weekend as they take on four East Division SCAC teams at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn.

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