Freshman Trinity Ward is Kentucky volleyball's emotional leader and the team's biggest talker. (Sofa Maker/SEC Photo)
For as long as she can remember, Trinity Ward dreamed of playing volleyball at the University of Kentucky.
She verbally committed to Kentucky before her high school junior season at Louisville Holy Cross. Her grandparents started taking her to UK games when she was 6 years old because they had season tickets to UK football, basketball and volleyball. She took lessons from Jackie Napper, the 2014 Southeastern Conference Libero of the Year at Kentucky. She had an autographed picture of UK standout Leah Edmond and knew UK libero Mackenzie Watson, who was on two SEC championship teams, because Watson’s mother worked where Ward got her hair cut.
Now Ward not only is playing and contributing at Kentucky as a true freshman but she’s in Kansas City with her teammates and will play Texas A&M today in the national championship game.
Ward had a significant role in Kentucky’s five-set comeback win over Wisconsin in the national semifinals Thursday.
Kentucky went on a 5-0 run early in set five to take control of the match with Ward serving. She started the service run with an ace and UK built a 6-1 lead.
“To have the guts to go back there like Trinity did at the beginning of that fifth set serve not just balls in the court, but tough serves, to impact the match, takes an incredible amount of confidence,” Skinner said after the win.. “But she’s prepared herself for this moment. That pressure is nothing compared to life pressure. She has overcome a lot to get herself in that moment. She showed how tough she was.”
Junior libero Molly Tuozzo was not surprised at what Ward did.
“Craig always tells us in practice every single day to serve like you’re serving in a national championship. Just trusting that, putting yourself in the game,” Tuozzo said. “I think (Ward) works really hard in practice about sticking serves on us and making us better. I think that just, like, made her ready for today.”
Ward admits she has wanted to play in the Final Four for as long as she can remember.
“It kind of got a lot more real whenever we got here. I’m just really excited to be actually able to do this because I’ve been dreaming of it for so long,” Ward said after the win over Creighton put UK in the Final Four. “Obviously, being from Kentucky I have a lot of pride in the school. I am just full of joy and it’s going to be a while until this joy comes off of me.”
Actually, the joy may never come off. Ward is the team’s 5-foot-7 bundle of energy both on and off the court.
“Trinity is our biggest talker on the team by a million miles,” SEC Player of the Year Eva Hudson said. “On the court you can always count on her to bring energy and positivity. This summer at 6 a.m. we would come into the weight room and she would yell, ‘Lets get it guys.’ I wanted to punch her but it is kind of cool to see a freshman do that. Her personality is contagious.”
Ward embraces her role as the team’s emotional leader and doesn’t deny she is the team’s biggest talker, something Skinner has mentioned a few times to her.
“Just being that enthusiastic and happy person that brings everyone else’s energy up, especially on the bench, is something I can do. I take a lot of pride in that because I can get everyone’s energy up on the bench and that flows to the court,” the UK freshman said. “I feel like I’m the smiling, happy, jumping up and down kind of person.”
However, she also has been a valuable server and defensive specialist who drew praise from Creighton coach Brian Rosen after the regional final win. Kentucky led only 15-14 in the first set against Creighton when Ward’s serving helped UK go on a 3-0 run. In the third set, she served during a 5-0 run that secured the set.
“She’s just one of the hardest workers out there, and I know when she got her shot to come in to serve she was going to make the most out of it,” UK teammate Brooklyn DeLeye said. “I mean, just props to her and just the person she is because she was just a huge momentum shift whether that was her serving or just her presence out there. She will be your biggest hype man.”
Ward appreciates Skinner giving her the opportunity to play for Kentucky and the support she receives from her teammates.
“No matter if I play good or no matter the outcome, they’re going to be there to support me. It’s super awesome just to go for it. That’s how I feel every time I go serve because that’s my one job,” Ward said.
Ward normally cannot stand still. If she’s not in the match, she’s always doing something on the sideline. She’ll retrieve loose balls. “That’s my job,” she laughed and said.
She’s a big part of the dance routines players not in the game do during breaks in play and will continue to do today when UK faces Texas A&M on ABC-TV in the national title game.
“We just call it out and we’re all on the same page, and we go and dance,” Ward said.
And when a match ends with a Kentucky win, no one sings “My Old Kentucky Home” louder or more passionately than Ward and she certainly did that after Thursday night’s win over Wisconsin.
“I take a lot of pride in that song. I have been singing it since I was little, so you are certainly going to hear me,” Ward said.
So how does she calm down to serve so well in front of 18,000 or more fans and a national TV audience like she had to do against Wisconsin?
“I take two deep breaths right before I serve. Whenever I’m doing my routine, I bounce the ball, I take a deep breath, I’m looking down, and I hold the ball, and I take another deep breath. I’m kind of locked in my zone and then I serve the ball,” she said. “The two deep breaths definitely help me bring it all in and then just do my job.”
Ward says she seldom gets nervous and that should note change today.
“I think pressure is a privilege. You have got to take it and run with it. There’s always a little bit of nerves, but when the first ball is served, it’s gone,” Ward said.
Skinner wanted his players to enjoy the Final Four experience, something Ward appreciates. However, she admits he does have to tell her to “hone it back in” occasionally in practice.
“Sometimes if I’m being a little too goofy, he might tell me to hone it back in but most of the time he enjoys it,” Ward said.
