Thursday, September 18, 2008
No 1-hit wonder
Glenvar veteran Liz Trinchere still controls the nets for the Highlanders.
Marcus Yam | The Roanoke Times
Glenvar hitter Liz Trinchere was a first-team pick in both Region C and Group A last season as a junior. Her Highlanders volleyball team is 7-0 so far in 2008.
Glenvar High School senior Liz Trinchere broke several Highlander volleyball hitting records as a junior in 2007.
Glenvar seniors Liz Trinchere (left) and Casey Moore were members of the 2006 Group A state title team for the Highlanders.
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At 4 p.m. in the Glenvar High School gymnasium, the Highlander varsity and JV volleyball teams come to life.
Head coach Mark Rohrback stands near the net, barely audible over the relentless smacks of hands sending leather spheres over the net and the echo of feet hitting the hardwood floor.
Amidst all this commotion, it's still hard to miss Liz Trinchere.
She's 6-feet tall, and -- oh, yeah -- she pounds the volleyball.
Tinchere broke school records for kills, kill attempts and kill percentage as a junior last year, earning first-team All-Region C, All-Group A and All-Timesland honors in the process.
Glenvar also boasts a state championship that Trinchere helped deliver in 2006. Now she is anxious to make another run at a title -- despite Glenvar having lost six players from last year's team, which reached the state quarterfinals.
While she has received some interest from a few Division I schools and several small colleges in the region, Trinchere is not sure what lies ahead for her as a volleyball player.
So for now the focus is on her last season with Glenvar and returning to the state tournament.
Less than a month into the season, the undefeated Highlanders' mission is on course.
"We didn't really know what to expect out of this season, but the team so far [is] coming together so well," Trinchere said. "The fact that we are 7-0 right now is really exciting. I'm really excited to see if we can keep up that streak and how far we can actually go."
Seeing how far the Highlanders can go has a lot to do with where Trinchere has come to get to this point.
Trinchere was a seventh grader when first spotted by Rohrback.
The coach had arrived at his game early when he spotted his current star middle hitter and thought to himself: "I wonder who that girl is?"
"I'd just never seen her play before," Rohrback said. "She kind of had a fluidity about her on the court that she kind of seemed to understand, already, the concept of the game and she was able to control the ball pretty well."
From there, it was rather formulaic.
Trinchere went on to play junior varsity as an eighth grader, and was promoted to varsity as a freshman. A year later, Trinchere -- along with fellow senior and co-captain Casey Moore -- helped the Highlanders win the state title.
Moore and Trinchere have known each other since kindergarten, and were even doubles partners on Glenvar's tennis team last season.
"Every time we're together, we're always pushing each other," Moore said.
Trinchere is also pushed by the competitive relationship she has with her brother Nick, a sophomore, and setting a good example on and off the court for younger sister Lexi, a seventh-grader also showing interest in volleyball.
"Yeah, she just started and she's setting for the middle school team," Trinchere said. "She's already said she wants to play volleyball for Wake Forest, which is cute."
Rohrback said he already has his eye on the younger Trinchere.
"You can tell, as [she watches] her big sister playing, you can just kind of see it in her eyes," he said. "She's like 'Man, I wonder if I'll be able to do that someday.' "
This is not an unusual occurrence for a school such as Glenvar. Rohrback said it is easy to keep up with younger sisters of current players. He enjoys how involved the families get with the volleyball program
"You don't just get to know the players," he said. "You get to know siblings and the parents and the whole family, and that's one of the things we try to do with the program."
