Trinity senior Tori Morrill’s road to becoming one of the top setters in the west suburbs began as a sophomore when she first started working with coach Ken Uhlir.
Morrill joined Triple Ace after a disappointing high school season in 2013 when the Blazers won fewer than 10 matches. Uhlir was a coach for Triple Ace at the time.
The following season, Uhlir was named the coach at Trinity and engineered an amazing turnaround as the Blazers went 20-17 before losing to Oak Park-River Forest in a Class 4A regional final.
The change to having Uhlir as a coach motivated Morrill. Uhlir brought an extra measure of intensity to Trinity’s bench. He is just as determined to win a summer league match at the Great Lakes Center in Aurora as he is a regular season GCAC Red match at Trinity’s Germanson Center.
“Players under Coach will work and focus on individual skills, and especially learning the team component,” said Morrill, a Westchester resident. “He will make you do (a drill) 100 times in practice until you do it right.”
Morrill, a four-year varsity player for the Blazers, has noticed quite a difference since the coaching change. Morrill said Uhlir repeat the same drills at practice for each phase of volleyball: warmup, passing drills, hitting drills, serve receive, serving and defense.
“There is a lot of hitting in practice where I set to the hitters,” Morrill said. “It’s definitely a lot more fun to win more games than we lose. His coaching style is tough, but he’s passionate about the game.”
The Blazers (8-8) are off to an inconsistent start this season, but managed a pair of impressive wins behind Morrill and junior outside hitter Carly Uhlir, Morrill’s favorite target. Trinity beat Nazareth 15-25, 25-18, 26-24 on Sept. 1 and Glenbard West 12-25, 25-22, 25-19 on Sept. 3 in back-to-back home matches.
Trinity opens the GCAC Red with a home match against Bishop McNamara on Tuesday, Sept. 22.
“Tori has worked hard to not only improve on the physical aspect of the game but our main area of focus has been with the mental side of the game,” Ken Uhlir said. “She has worked hard to be a student of the game and on understanding how to make good decisions that will lead to team success.”
The Blazers have dropped from 4A to Class 3A and will play in the Glenbard South Sectional with top teams like Rosary, IC Catholic, Nazareth and Fenwick.
Twitter @geomwilcox
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