CHEYENNE, WY – The #18 Laramie County Community College volleyball team finished their first run through the Region IX North schedule with a perfect 6-0 while improving to 22-4 on the season after taking down Casper College in straight sets on Saturday afternoon 26-24, 25-13, 23-25, 25-17.
"We knew it was going to be a tough opponent, but we had a great crowd and that was definitely helpful," Head Coach Zach Shaver said. "I think our players just really worked hard and stuck to the gameplan."
The Golden Eagles fought their way through a tense first set, holding off the Thunderbirds late rally after leading 23-18 to get the momentum on their side with the extra set win 26-24.
Set two was where LCCC sent a message in the second set with a convincing win 25-13 and Head Coach Zach Shaver said that was something he keyed on during the break between the first and the second sets.
"Once we win set one, which we've done a lot of the time, we take our foot off of the gas in set two and we really emphasized that we had to go get that set two win because otherwise I felt like the match could go either way," Shaver added. "I think doing that was the key to victory."
Casper College fought back to take the third set, but even then, the Golden Eagles didn't go down easily after trailing 13-6. LCCC was able to go a run to close the gap to two, but the Thunderbirds finished with a 25-23 win to force the match to a fourth set.
It was all LCCC in the final set as an early advantage led them to the lead early and they wouldn't relinquish it on their way to the 25-17 victory to take the match 3-1.
A pair of attackers finished the match with double doubles with Addyson McArthur tallying 13 kills and 12 digs to go with another 13 kills and 14 digs from Demi Stauffenberg. Stauffenberg led the team in hitting with a .316 hitting percentage on 38 attacks.
Kate Ohlsen finished with another 37 assists bringing her season tally to 745 which is 12th in the nation.
On defense, the Golden Eagles picked up another 14 digs from Sadie Christiansen and as a team finished with one solo block from Elysiana Fonseca and seven assisted blocks which included four more from Fonseca and four from Sidney Kettelkamp.
The match was also a part of the Golden Eagles "Flight for a Cure" matches, which they are pairing up with Casper College on. The teams are working to raise money for local cancer services, and the two teams have already combined to raise over $2,000 in donations for the cause.
Shaver said the event has a lot of meaning for everyone involved.
"It sucks that we have to say that everybody has been touched by somebody close to them with cancer, but I'm glad that the two teams, even though we are opponents, came together for a common cause, and that was important. And it was nice to see that our community in Cheyenne rallied around us and came out to a 2 o'clock Saturday game."
The two will meet again on October 28th in Casper, Wyoming for the second match of the fundraiser.
For LCCC, they will return to action on Tuesday when they make the short trip to Torrington to face off with Eastern Wyoming College. Opening serve is scheduled for 7:00 pm and more information can be found at www.golccc.com.