ROCK SPRINGS, WY - The #16 Laramie County Coummunity College volleyball team dropped their first match in over a month, falling to Western Wyoming Community College 3-2 (24-26, 25-23, 24-26, 25-23, 15-12) on Friday night at the Rushmore Gymnasium. The loss snaps the Golden Eagles winning streak at 13 and is their first loss in conference play, dropping them to 10-1 on the season. 

Both teams battled, but when the pressure was on at the end of sets where we are usually pretty good, tonight we made too many errors and (Western Wyoming) played really well when the pressure was on," Shaver said. 

Set one opened in the favor of LCCC. The Golden Eagles were up 12-7 before a 5-0 run got the Mustangs back into the game, taking leads at 16-15 and 17-16. The Golden Eagles roared back though to return to the lead at 21-18 on a 5-1 run spearheaded by a pair of Elysiana Fonseca kills. WWCC did tie the match at 24, but LCCC finished with the final two points to ice the first set. 

Neither team was able to take control of the second set and get any true seperation at any point on the way to the Mustangs evening the match at a set all. The largest lead of the set came after a 7-2 run put WWCC up 15-11, but was quickly cancelled out by a 6-1 run from LCCC to give the Golden Eagles the lead at 17-16. That was the last time LCCC would hold the edge and the Mustangs took the second set 25-23. 

The Golden Eagles got a big scare in the third set when it seemed like the momentum had settled on the Mustangs side of the court. After being tied at ten, WWCC went on an 8-3 run to force a pair of LCCC timeouts. The team responded well, going on a 7-1 run to take the lead back for the first time since it was 6-5 when they led 22-21. That spur to get them back into the set was enough to earn the win and put LCCC up 2-1 thanks to another 26-24 set win. 

WWCC again was up to the task and challenge in set four. The Golden Eagles could never get the seperation they wanted, and only had a sparing set of leads in the fourth, but the second of those leads came late when a 4-1 run pushed them up 22-21. The Mustangs won four of the next five points though, and for only the second time in the season, LCCC was going to a fifth set in conference play after dropping the fourth 25-23.

Fifth sets are mostly a momentum thing, and Western Wyoming used a big home crowd to go up 10-3 right out of the gate. LCCC stiffened to show their fight and resolve and tied the match at eleven and again at twelve in a ferious comeback, but the home crowd and long match ended up being too much in a 15-12 loss to drop the match on the road. 

"We knew we were going on the road against the second and third best teams in the conference and we know they are very solid teams," Shaver said. "Now we just have to get ready to prepare and get a little healthier overnight and be ready for tomorrow."

LCCC was paced in the game by Demi Stauffenberg who finished with a team high 20 kills. Fonseca added a career best 18 kills and hit .421 in the process with only two errors. Famke Zomer also had 14 kills and all three were helped by a career high in assists for Kate Ohlsen who finish with 54 assists, which is tied for 6th all time in school history for a single game. 

Sadie Christiansen matched her career high in digs with 34 and was one of five Golden Eagles in double digits with Zomer added 22 more of the 105 team digs in the match. Lauren Fagerberg led the team in blocking with one solo and five assisted blocks. 

The Golden Eagles finish their regular season slate on Saturday when they finish their road trip to Casper, Wyoming to take on Casper College. First serve is scheduled for 2:00 pm. The match is the second round of the Casper and LCCC volleyball partnership in Flight for a Cure, which has already raised several thousand dollars for local cancer services for the communities. More information can be found at www.golccc.com.