STERLING, CO – The #19 Laramie County Community College volleyball team gave #6 Northeastern Junior College a strong match on Thursday night but fell just short in the first battle of the two teams in 2023 with a 3-1 (25-15, 25-16, 17-25, 25-15) loss to their Region IX rivals from the South.
The opening set was one of runs, and unfortunately the Plainswomen had the longer ones. The two sides traded short runs to open the match but with the score at 8-6 in favor of NJC, the Golden Eagles began to struggle with the block at the net and fell behind to drop the set 25-15.
Set two was much more balanced at the start as both teams traded kills to a 4-3 score in favor of Northeastern. NJC began to start sneaking away up 8-5, but LCCC kept lingering within a few points to make it interesting.
Lauren Fagerberg helped lead a rally to tie the match up at eleven with a pair of kills and a block as between herself and Elysiana Fonseca, the middles for the Golden Eagles were becoming the focal point of the offense.
The Plainswomen took command midway through as they pulled ahead 17-13 forcing Shaver to call his first time out but the run continued afterwards forcing a second time out at 21-13 NJC. They finished off the set with a 25-16 win to take command 2-0.
LCCC had 14 kills to 15 errors in the first two sets and Shaver said it came down to how they were executing the attacks.
"When we attacked intelligently then we were good, but a lot of times we just went up and hit the ball without a plan and that led to too many errors."
It was a different start to the third set for LCCC in that they put the Plainswomen on their back heels early and halfway through had an 11-7 advantage. The lead exploded after that as the Golden Eagles held NJC to just ten points the rest of the way and picked up a huge win closed out by Demi Stauffenberg and Addyson McArthur giving Laramie County a 25-17 and force a fourth set.
"One of our goals is to not lose to anybody 3-0 no matter who they are," Shaver said about the break between the second a third sets. "That was something we really focused on, and we cleaned up a few things and started to play like we didn't have anything to lose. We started to play more aggressively and that led to the set three win."
The relaxed play by LCCC continued in the opening points of the fourth, taking a 4-1 lead out of the gate and it was easy to see the momentum beginning to shift.
LCCC continued to lead at 8-5 but NJC tied the match at nine all on a pair of net violations and picked up the lead on the next point on an ace and built the lead to 16-11 forcing another LCCC timeout. The momentum was too much to overcome the rest of the way as NJC outscored the Golden Eagles 9-4 to take the match three sets to one.
"I think we mentally just ran out of gas and that led to a lack of physical execution in some spots," Shaver said. "They just kept beating on us in spots and we eventually wore down."
NJC came away with the four-set win, but Head Coach Zach Shaver said this showed when his team is on, they can play with the best in the country.
"We have the skills to play with anybody. We just need to execute consistently at about an eighty percent clip rather than 40 percent."
The Golden Eagles were led by McArthur and Fonseca in kills with both picking up eight. Stauffenberg finished with seven after having no kills through the first two sets. Kate Ohlsen had 27 assists, leading the team.
The defense was a part of the match that shined for LCCC with several very long rallies and the team picked up 51 digs in the match, led by Sadie Christiansen with 16.
The team will have the rest of the weekend off before they return to action next Thursday for the start of the Wyo-Braska Invitational hosted by Eastern Wyoming College and Western Nebraska Community College. The Golden Eagles will have single matches on Thursday and Saturday, with a pair on Friday. More information can be found on streaming and match times at www.golccc.com.