ROSWELL, NM – The Laramie County Community College volleyball team had mixed results in their opening matches of the 2023 season on the road in the New Mexico Military Institute Classic. The Golden Eagles faced the host team in the nightcap, falling 3-0 (25-10, 25-13, 25-17) after winning their opener against Pima Community College in straight sets 25-18, 25-8, 25-17.
LCCC 3 PIMA CC 0 – 25-18, 25-8, 25-18
A tight first set opened with the Golden Eagles trading points with Pima before starting to break free 15 points into the set. Laramie County was able to put a few points between the two until they exploded late with a run to take a 21-14 lead on an Elysiana Fonseca kill. Pima did respond for a late rally but fell 25-18.
Set two was a statement win for the Golden Eagles who dominated from start to finish, taking a double-digit lead at 14-4 on their way to a very convincing 25-8 win and a 2-0 match lead.
"I think we controlled the serving and passing games on both sides of it," Shaver said. "We stayed in system fairly well passing and we got them out of system with our serve so that gave us some significant point runs."
The good news continued into set three, where LCCC once again opened quickly with their starting rotation taking 9-0 lead before the Aztecs could blink. Shaver took the strong start as a chance to get in some more players and Pima did rally, to make it 25-18 by set end, but it didn't keep LCCC from opening the season 1-0 on the sweep.
"Getting the first win, especially 3-0 gave us some confidence and gave us a chance going into the night match so in the long run I think it was a really good first match for us," Shaver added.
LCCC 0 #8 NMMI 3 – 25-10, 25-13, 25-17
The opening set against #8 New Mexico Military Institute started off with the Golden Eagles in a 6-1 hole early before a timeout from Shaver but LCCC used the time out to settle down and go on a 4-2 run to stop the Broncos momentum and bring it to 8-5 on a Demi Stauffenberg kill.
With LCCC down 11-8, NMMI found a few rotations they liked and began to pull away, outlasting the Golden Eagles in several points as they progressed on a second run to close the first set 25-10, finishing it on a 14-2 run.
Shaver said the opening set caught the team off balance with the atmosphere in the gym.
"They have a great home atmosphere with a lot of fans. It's noisy, they are a very aggressive team and they just came out and put us on our heels right away."
Set two was another mirror start with NMMI opening on another long run to build a 7-1 lead. Laramie County found their footing though and closed the gap with a 6-3 run of their own to make it 10-7. The match started to slip away in the next rotation when the Broncos rebuilt and expanded their lead to close the set out 25-13.
Laramie County opened the third set with a new attitude and came right at the Broncos through the first ten points, staying even at 5-5. NMMI went on another run over the next ten points, winning eight of them and the run would grow to 11-2 midway through the set making it 16-7.
The Golden Eagles didn't go down quietly, pulling back to within six at 21-15 on a Famke Zomer kill but it wouldn't be enough as the Broncos closed out the win in straight sets with a 25-17 victory.
The team never backed down during their match despite the final set scores, and Shaver said he was proud of the way they battled to the final point.
"They got into some long rallies that against most teams we play, we would have ended up winning those. In those long rallies we did everything we needed to do against the majority of teams."
Two freshman had strong showings for the Golden Eagles including Zomer in match one and Fonseca in the match with NMMI.
The team will be back in action with a pair of matches on Saturday to close out the Classic. First up at 10:00 am they will face Vernon College before closing out their tournament stay with a battle against #13 Eastern Arizona College at 2:00 pm.