Chillicothe Hornets vs. Trenton Bulldogs is a northern Missouri sports rivalry

Hornets sweep rival Bulldogs in early season volleyball duel

Local Sports Volleyball

The Chillicothe Lady Hornets swept “C” team, JV, and varsity matchups with the Trenton Lady Bulldogs on Thursday night inside the THS gymnasium, winning all three matches in straight sets.

Chillicothe swept away Trenton in the varsity match, 25-12, 25-14, 25-12, with the duo of Maya Snyder and Essie Hicks dominating at the net, combining for 11 kills, while providing sizzling serves, with 14 combined aces.  Trenton coach Pam Bowden, in her weekly interview to air tonight between 6:00 and 6:30 on Hot Country Z 101.7, admitted that it was a “tough return of serve” night for the Bulldog side.

Former Lady Bulldog Haylee Coplen had a strong night for Chillicothe with eight assists, with Clara and Ella Leamer each contributing three kills.

For Trenton, Makenzee Epperson had six digs, Olivia Roberts four digs, and Jessa Shipley six digs, as the Lady Bulldogs struggled to flip the court from a defensive to offensive set.  Ava Simpson had five assists to pace the Trenton scoring attack, with Evy McCullough finding a pair of kills, and libero Kenzie Yuille ten digs.

Coach Bowden says Trenton “started out flat-flooted” and let the visiting Hornets get ahead, in the process discovering that “it is more challenging to play from behind”.  Adding an encouraging note for 0-2 Trenton, Bowden said the Bulldogs are “working together as a team to make progress” and have “talented players, just needing to find a way to get over the hump”.

Trenton hosts Plattsburg on Tuesday night at 5 o’clock, with Chillicothe hosting the Brookfield Lady ‘Dogs on Tuesday night for the CHS Senior Night.  The Trenton-Plattsburg matchup does start a stretch that, on paper, appears to be not as difficult as the Cameron and Chillicothe start for the Bulldogs, who lost in straight sets to Cameron on the Trenton home floor earlier in the week.

The C team match went to Chillicothe 25-5, 25-11.  Lilly Woods had two digs and Haley Schultz two aces for Trenton.

The junior varsity duel went to the Lady Hornets 25-16, 25-11.  For THS, Kaylea Boyle had four assists and three digs, Katie Markell six digs, Abby Simpson two assists and two kills, with Juliet Schmadeke and Sarah Washburn each adding a pair of kills.