CHEYENNE, WY – The Laramie County Community College volleyball team picked up their third win of the year in the home opener against Lamar Community College (0-1) on Tuesday night, completing a four set with 25-17, 25-19, 18-25, 25-16 in front of a large home crowd at Storey Gymnasium.
The team wasn't as sharp as they had been the opening weekend in Roswell, New Mexico but Head Coach Zach Shaver said he was still happy with the performance and loved the home environment.
"I felt like we were a little nervous being at home for the first time. Our serving and passing game weren't nearly as consistent as it has been, so that led to struggles, but I was happy that we regrouped after losing set three and took control and played the way we are capable of playing," Shaver said.
The Golden Eagles (3-2) held the lead almost the entirety of the opening set and took advantage of poor hitting late by the Running Lopes to pull away. Set two was more of the same and the team was able to hit .250 on their way to the 2-0 set lead.
Set three was a bump in the road for the Golden Eagles, falling behind 12-4 before a timeout was called by Shaver and he tried to refocus his team. They did close the match on a 14-13 push, but it was too little too late to finish the sweep.
The wakeup call continued into the fourth, and LCCC played their best offensive match of the night, gaining 13 kills as a team and only making four hitting errors. That led to them closing the match 25-16 and picking up the Region IX crossover win.
"It was a great home crowd," Shaver said. "I think, it made us a little nervous and I think a lot of our girls weren't used to playing in front of that many people, but that's a great thing. We'll get over it and it will be an advantage in the future."
The Golden Eagles were led by a pair of double-doubles. Demi Stauffenberg finished with 11 kills and 12 digs. Kate Ohlsen had 23 assists and was also active on the defensive side with 14 digs. Eight different LCCC players recorded a kill and the team hit .154 as a group, paced by Elysiana Fonseca in the middle who has six kills on eleven attacks with no hitting errors. She also finished with a team high four blocks.
"Offensively, Elysiana Fonseca did well, leading us in hitting percentage, but our rock-solid player was Demi Stauffenberg. She just played well all the way around and when we were really struggling, she steadied the ship and got us back on track," Shaver added.
Laramie County is back in action this weekend when they travel to Casper for their second tournament of the season. They will face off against Colby Community College and Lake Region State College on Friday, August 25th before closing the tournament with Treasure Valley Community College and Colorado Northwest Community College on Saturday.
Shaver said the focus is still on improving themselves and they aren't looking ahead to any matches or tournament, but instead are taking it day by day.
"I just talked to the girls, and all our focus is on the next two practices, then we will start thinking about Friday's opponents."
The full schedule for the Golden Eagles can be found online at www.golccc.com.