She’s gotten to run in the last two All-City track and field meets, but with the in-town girls basketball rivalry on hiatus, Bishop McNamara three-sport standout Trinitee Thompson had to wait until the second week of her junior year for the intense atmosphere of one-on-one All-City action with the Fightin’ Irish when the girls volleyball team visited Kankakee on Wednesday.

It’s safe to say it was worth the wait.

After a handful of Thompson’s lively kills sparked a dominant 25-14 first-set win, the Irish (2-3) withheld the most furious of Kankakee (1-3) rallies down the second-set stretch for a 25-20 set win and 2-0 win in 2025’s first leg of All-City action.

“It was really good,” Thompson said. “The energy from everyone around us, I just love that energy. I feel like we played pretty [well] tonight.”

The Irish certainly played well at the start, scoring seven of the first eight points in the first set and never leading by fewer than five points after that in the opener. Thompson accounted for five of those points, totaling four of her team-high five kills and a block as the Irish coasted to a comfortable 11-point first-set win.

A middle hitter through her freshman and sophomore years on the younger levels, Thompson was moved to the right side this year due to the glut of returning middle hitters the Irish boast – seniors Kate Dole and Journey Slone as well as sophomore Jersey Slone.

“We’re getting pretty comfortable and putting a pretty good block up front with Trinitee and Jersey when they’re both up there. ...” Irish coach Ryan Thomas said. “She’s working her butt off and adapting, and she’s playing pretty well.”

Just as it looked like the Irish would have little resistance on their halfway point to their first All-City crown in 13 years, the Kays got on track. After a neck-and-neck start to the second set, the Irish got back-to-back aces to jumpstart an 8-2 run and force a Kankakee timeout facing a 22-13 deficit.

Second-year Kays coach Lauren Penrod told her team they weren’t playing the way they were capable of and urged them to find it in them.

And they did.

Elizabeth Avalos’ stout block on the right side got the crowd going and made it 22-14, and by the time Ki’Asia Wilson’s kill was the exclamation point on a length volley with several bodies on the deck, the Kays had roared back to within four at 24-20.

“I told them they just needed to want it. I can’t want it for them, and I’m very competitive, but they have to want it. That’s what I told them in that last timeout, and I really think they went out there and showed that they’re competitive.

“It’s just that slow start that’s frustrating.”

But quicker than the Kays got momentum, they lost it when the Irish sealed the deal on a Kankakee net violation.

“We got way too comfortable in the second [set], I felt like,” Thompson said. “And then their energy got up, so it was tough, but we made it.”

After a 1-3 week and third-place finish at the Cissna Park Timberwolf Tip-Off last week, the Irish made it two straight two-set wins after sweeping Grace Christian on Tuesday.

Thompson had five kills, while Dole and Journey Slone had four apiece. They got 13 assists from Jessica Born, 10 digs from Kenna Brosseau and after Journey Slone’s three aces, saw Brosseu, Dole and Carley Johnson tally two apiece.

While a rivalry win is always nice, Thomas was happier to just see his Irish are starting to find their way.

“That’s part of it,” Thomas said of the crosstown rivalry, “but we started off a little rough this season, so it’s nice to kind of see it get going in the right direction.”

While the Kays have lost three of their first four, two of those losses came to defending Class 2A state champion Mahomet-Seymour and 3A power Providence. And as they started to show glimpses of their potential late Wednesday, Penrod is waiting for her Kays to see it in themselves.

“They’ve got it in them. I just don’t know if they know they’ve got it in them,” Penrod said. “We’re good, and I want us to believe we’re good. We’re getting there.”