CHEYENNE, WY – The #18 Laramie County Community College volleyball team took down Gillette College in straight sets for the second time this season, 25-14, 25-22, 25-22 on Saturday afternoon at Storey Gym, extending their winning streak to 11 games and moving to 9-0 at home on the season.
"It's been fun," Setter Kate Ohlsen said about the run the Golden Eagles have been on. "Every win is just another box checked off our list to get to our goal which is going to nationals."
LCCC opened the match in a tight first set, but after Gillette got to within 10-8, the Golden Eagles went on an 8-2 run to create some space and traded points the rest of the way to a 25-14 win in the opening set.
The second set was a chance for the bench for LCCC to get some time for their bench and saw very few reps for the starting lineup and the reserves played well, pulling away after a 11-9 start to lead 19-11 late in the set, aided by a long service run by Emalee Bugas.
The Pronghorns made a slight surge back, but the Golden Eagles didn't falter and finished the set with a 25-21 win.
"I love that our team is so deep that anyone can go play and get kills and it's so much fun supporting from the bench," Ohlsen said.
The third set saw a return to the starting lineup with LCCC looking for the sweep of the two regular season matches with Gillette. The set was more competitive, but the Golden Eagles didn't let the Pronghorns ever take a lead and held a 19-12 advantage.
A long service run that included three aces from Gillette closed the gap to 23-21. After a quick timeout, LCCC took two of the next three points to ice the match and win their 26th match of the season while moving to 8-0 in Region IX North play.
"I think we didn't defend as well as we should have against that team. Too many balls got through our block and not enough digs, but overall, we got the job done and finished the busy week with four wins," Shaver said.
The Golden Eagles were paced by a pair with ten kills from Addyson McArthur and Demi Stauffenberg. Elysiana Fonseca added another nine.
Kate Ohlsen had 21 assists, playing in two of the three sets and Nicole Shaver finished with six of the nine assists in the second set.
Ohlsen finished with 121 assists during the four matches this week and now has 866 on the year. She said she is just working on improving any way she can.
"I'm just trying to work on all the little things and see how good I can get," she said.
"I think Kate has really learned how to run our offense effectively," Shaver added, praising the freshman setter.
On defense, LCCC finished with seven blocks as a team, all assisted and were paced by Lauren Fagerberg who finished with four, followed by McArthur who added three.
The Golden Eagles will return home this weekend for their final matches at Storey Gym when they host Northwest College on Friday night at 7:00 pm and Central Wyoming College on Saturday afternoon for sophomore day at 2:00 pm. Wins in those matches would move LCCC to 11-0 at home on the season.
"It is actually one of our team goals," Shaver said. "It's on our board in our locker room to go undefeated at home, or as the team calls it, defend the nest. It's a good little cycle to use that home court advantage and I know on sophomore day that groups really going to be excited to play."
More information can be found on those matches at www.golccc.com.