STERLING, CO – The Laramie County Community College volleyball team battled hard against the Northeastern Junior College but couldn't find their timing enough to avoid the sweep against the #2 team in the country falling 25-14, 25-14, 25-18 on Thursday evening.

"I loved our energy when we started. We came out and played point for point with them. Their athleticism just kind of took over in the middle of set one and into set two but I thought we didn't give up and battled," Shaver said.

The Golden Eagles came out quickly in the opening set and established a small lead at 9-7 thanks to some tough serving that got the Plainswomen out of system, but a 4-0 run forced Shaver to take his first timeout.

The run grew to 10-2 for NJC and after their second timeout the Golden Eagles couldn't slow down the bleeding and felling 25-14.

LCCC found it tough sledding in the first half of the second set and the Plainswomen steadily stacked onto their lead to make it double digits at 18-8. A small run gave some hope to the Golden Eagles when they cut the deficit to 18-12 but they would be outscored 7-2 the rest of the way to a second 25-14 loss.

"A lot of the balls that we hit tonight would have been kills against 90 percent of the country, but NJC did a really good job on defense. Even if it wasn't an in system dig (NJC) still transitioned it for a point which was amazing tonight," Shaver said.

Down 2-0, the Golden Eagles put their best effort onto the court in the final set and stayed even with NJC through the first 20 serves to even the set at 10-10. NJC took the lead at 11-10 and that would be the moment they would break the set open.

LCCC surrendered at 14-8 run from there to the end of the set and fell 25-18 to finish the sweep.

The Golden Eagles were paced by Addyson McArthur on the offensive side. The outside hitter started slowly but finished the match with nine kills. Stauffenberg added another six and Fonseca finished with five.

Kate Ohlsen finished the match with 21 assists.

On defense, the Golden Eagles struggled with their block timing at the net, only recording one during the match. Sadie Christiansen led the team in digs with 12 and was followed closely by Ohlsen and Famke Zomer with 11 each.

The Golden Eagles now turn their attention to Casper College in the noon game on Friday after the Thunderbirds bounced back from their opening round loss with a sweep of McCook Community College on Thursday afternoon.

"We are rivals, and we know each other pretty well," Shaver said of Casper. "It's definitely a familiar opponent so I think it is going to come down to which team can execute on their side of the net better."

Streaming information and more can be found at www.golccc.com.