GILLETTE, WY – The Laramie County Community College volleyball team was in good form as they rolled to a three-set sweep of the Gillette College Pronghorns on Saturday afternoon 25-14, 25-19, 25-14, improving to 2-0 in Region IX North action and 17-4 overall.
In set one, LCCC was a little slow out of the gate, finding themselves trailing 7-6 in set one before responding with a 7-1 run to force the Pronghorns into a timeout to slow down the Golden Eagles momentum.
"It was a long road trip," Shaver said. "I told them we didn't have to be great early on, just don't dig ourselves a hole and we didn't do that and then we were fine."
The Golden Eagles pushed the lead to double digits by the end of the set to take it 25-14.
The second set saw a more consistent effort from Gillette College, but the Golden Eagles remained constant as well, leading midway through 13-9 as the Pronghorns were forced into another timeout.
LCCC remained in control despite never getting more than five points of separation from the Pronghorns until the final point to take the second set 25-19 and close in on the sweep.
Set three got off to a quick start with a 5-2 advantage early before Gillette College rallied to close the gap to 6-5 after a 3-1 run. That was answered by strong play at the net by LCCC and they quickly pushed the lead back to 9-5 and forced another Pronghorn timeout.
The Golden Eagle held them at arm's length for the rest of the match and set to clean up the sweep and take down the Pronghorns 25-14, closing the set on a 6-1 run as they moved to 17-4 on the season.
LCCC picked up a strong effort from Elysiana Fonseca in the match with eleven kills to lead the team. Both Demi Stauffenberg and Addyson McArthur added nine each as the team hit .308 on the day.
"When (Elysiana) gets a few kills early, our offense opens up because they have to respect that we are going to set her again," Shave said. "Even Kate attacking as a setter today opened up the pins again today because you just can't block inside and outside at the same time, so it definitely puts a lot of stress on the block."
Eight Golden Eagles recorded a kill in the match and Shaver said that the way the team passes the ball helps with spreading the offense around.
"We try to spread the ball out and put some stress on the block by passing well. If we aren't passing well and they know where we are going to set. Most of the time our setters are making good decisions on where to pass it."
Kate Ohlsen was strong in two sets for LCCC with 22 assists before giving way to Nicole Shaver who had 13 assists in the third set.
Defensively, Sadie Christiansen had 14 digs and was the only Golden Eagle to reach double digits and as a team they finished with 47 in the match.
LCCC will be back on the road on Friday when they travel to Northwest College on Friday evening at 6:00 pm with a second leg of the back to backs at Central Wyoming College on Saturday at 2:00 pm.
More information can be found at www.golccc.com.