CHEYENNE, WY – The Laramie County Community College volleyball team took to the court for the first time in an official match on Friday afternoon at the McCook Invitational with a two pack, first taking down the North Platte Community College Knights 25-20, 25-22, 25-20 before finishing the day with a 25-18, 25-18, 25-14 sweep of the Otero College Rattlers.
"It's always good to win. We definitely have some things we want to work on and clean up a bit but I'm definitely proud of the energy and effort the girls put in today," Head Coach Zach Shaver said. "Even though they were down in some sets, they didn't let it get away from them and two sweeps is always a great way to start the season."
LCCC 3 – NPCC 0, 25-20, 25-22, 25-20
The opening set was a back-and-forth affair with each side trying to find their balance in the opening match of the year for both teams.
LCCC was the first to break away using a 5-2 run to gain some separation and take a 7-5 lead that would stay in place for the remainder of the set. The Golden Eagles would extend the advantage in the back half thanks to a 6-1 run that gave them a 21-15 lead and broke the set open on the way to a 25-20 opening win.
That momentum carried over into the second set where LCCC started out hot on the serve of Adriana Deming, leading them to a 5-1 lead in the opening salvos. North Platte did battle their way back with a run in the middle points to take the lead back at 14-13 and again at 15-14, but it wouldn't last.
A run of six straight points led by the serving of Addison Schreurs vaulted the Golden Eagles back in front and gave them a commanding 20-15 lead. Despite a furious effort to rally back from the Knights, who did close the gap to 23-22, the Golden Eagles would finish the set out after NPCC committed a pair of hitting errors at the net helped along by the blocking presence of the Golden Eagles front line.
Up 2-0, the Golden Eagles surged out to another early lead in the third set, going up 7-3 after the first ten serves. That set the tone and with the LCCC defense and attack causing the Knights to press, the errors mounted up for NPCC on the way to a match high 22-15 lead for LCCC.
"We did a really good job of building momentum in the sets and forcing the opponents to call timeouts. We just want to do a better job of having that momentum when the set starts," Shaver said.
North Platte did close the gap back to 22-19 on a small run, but Paulina Mielniczuk took it into her hands this time at the net to finish off the set and match with two kills in the final two points and LCCC finished the sweep with a 25-20 win.
LCCC 3, Otero 0 – 25-18, 25-18, 25-14
The second match of the day for LCCC started off a little slower after an aggressive start by Otero had the Rattlers leading 5-2 in the opening salvos.
The Golden Eagles battled hard to even the match at six and the set was seesaw back and forth until at 17 all LCCC took control. Behind a service run led by Savannah Cummings which included a pair of aces, LCCC reeled off seven straight points to ice the set and win it 25-18.
Otero didn't get too rattled though, and in the second set, they once again took the early advantage at 4-1. The momentum once again petered out as they struggled to find any openings through the LCCC defense at the net and saw four kills from Mielniczuk help the Golden Eagles establish their own lead at 11-7 on a six-point service run.
The Rattlers tried to keep pace but ran into another wall late in the set when the Golden Eagles won eight of ten points to push the lead to 22-13 and close out the win 25-18, finishing on a rare run of back-to-back kills by their setter Addison Schreurs.
Set three was not nearly as tight. LCCC took control early and spread the ball around to four different attackers in the first 17 points to take a 13-4 advantage and give the team the chance to play deeper into their bench.
"I think our offense and our blocking could both be strengths of ours," Shaver summarized.
Even with the substitutions, the Golden Eagles continued to pull away, going on two more long service runs to make the score 18-8 and then 24-12 before closing the sweep out with a 25-14 set win.
LCCC will return to action on Saturday morning when they take on Seward County Community College Saints at 11:00 am MDT before closing out their opening tournament against the host McCook Community College Indians at 3:00 pm.
Shaver said he feels the team is ready to bring the same energy they brought to the second day of competition.
"We are deep enough we can make some substitutions which we did a little bit today. I think we worked hard this preseason and with our summer workouts I don't foresee any issues that we would have."
The Saints dropped both of their matches on Friday, losing to McCook 3-1 and falling to Highland Community College 3-2. McCook finished the day 2-0 with a sweep of HCC to go with their win over Seward County.
Both matches will be streamed on Saturday, and links as well as more information can be found at www.golccc.com.