CHEYENNE, WY – The #17 Laramie County Community College finished their home schedule with a flourish on Saturday afternoon against Central Wyoming College, saving some drama for the final game of a four-set match to win 25-20, 20-25, 25-18, 25-23 and improve to 28-4 on the season.
The Golden Eagles paced themselves to an early lead in the opening set thanks to a tough serving game that netted five aces on the way to the 25-20 win.
"That's one thing that we focus on a lot, is our serving and passing game, so I felt coming out with stronger serves and a good passing game was what helped us win that first set and throughout the match," Outside Hitter Demi Stauffenberg said who had three aces in the opening set.
The Golden Eagles marched out to another early lead in the second set, but after leading 7-3, they gave up an 18-4 run to the Rustlers and found the match even again at one set each.
The third set was one for grit and determination and LCCC rose to the challenge. That challenge was only intensified when late in the set, the team saw freshman Addyson McArthur leave the match for a period after an injury.
"Me and Sadie just pulled everyone in and said it's going to be tough but it's going to be okay. It was just a little bit of adversity that we had to fight through, but I felt like we handled it well," Stauffenberg said.
The team handled it to the tune of a 25-18 set win and a 2-1 advantage going into the fourth.
Central Wyoming wasn't a team to go down easily though. LCCC gave up the lead late after fighting back into the set though the middle points only to go down 23-19. That was when the team rallied around the serve of Famke Zomer and won the next six points to deny the Rustlers the chance to win the match in a fifth set and end it in four 25-23.
There were several long rallies in the final set that the Golden Eagles could point to for getting them to the end with a win.
"I think defense is one of our leading momentum changers," Sadie Christiansen said. "When we get those good defensive moves and get the ball up when it's not expected it brings a lot of momentum and helps us get the energy back on the court."
Head Coach Zach Shaver said the way they finished the match by rallying from a deep hole shows how much they have grown as a team this year in their mental determination.
"We started the season talking about not waiting for it to get easier, to learn how to handle the hard things better, and that's what is going to allow you to win championships and achieve the things you want to achieve in life," Shaver said. "I think today was a perfect example. When things got hard, we didn't look for easy. We just found a way to battle and score points and ended up getting the win at the end."
LCCC finished with both McArthur and Stuaffenberg in double-digits for kills and digs with 13 of each for McArthur and 12 kills to go with 13 digs for Stauffenberg. Zomer joined Elysiana Fonseca with seven more. Kate Ohlsen finished the match with 35 of the team's 40 assists and as a group, LCCC picked up 12 aces in the four-set match.
Christiansen continued her strong season on defense with 21 digs to lead the team.
The Golden Eagles finish the home season going 11-0 and going perfect at home for the first time since the restart of the program in 2003. They look to secure the top seed in the Region IX tournament this weekend, needing to win at least one of their matches with Western Wyoming College on Friday and Casper College on Saturday.
Both matches are on the road and more information is available at www.golccc.com.