McCOOK, NE – The second day of the McCook Invitational wrapped up with the Laramie County Community College volleyball team on the wrong end of a pair of five set matches.
The day opened with the Golden Eagles falling to Seward County Community College Saints 27-25, 25-15, 25-27, 12-25, 9-15 before they dropped their final match of the weekend to the host McCook Community College Indians 19-25, 14-25, 25-16, 25-19, 13-15.
SCCC 3 LCCC 2 - 27-25, 25-15, 25-27, 12-25, 9-15
In a match that saw both sides of the extremes for the Golden Eagles, the match started out with LCCC rolling ahead to a 6-1 advantage in the opening set. That lead was slowly chipped away by the Saints who would take a lead of their own at 14-13 and would grow the lead to as much as three.
The Golden Eagles answered back with a 5-0 run to reclaim the lead for a brief period, but up 20-18, they saw SCCC rally to win six of the next seven points to take a 24-21 lead. The seesaw continued to swing back and forth though, and LCCC rallied to win the next three points, and six of the next seven to answer back and take the opening set 27-25.
Set two seemed to be the one that LCCC took command of the match in.
Leading by one at 10-9, the Golden Eagles ripped off a 6-1 run to take a commanding lead they wouldn't give back and closed the 25-15 set win with a 7-2 run.
The momentum carried over into the third set for LCCC and they were able to slowly build the lead to 18-12. Seward County would hold off the executioner's blade though and pushed back to win twelve of the next 15 points and for a second time in the match held a 24-21 lead.
LCCC didn't blink again though. They would force extra points again, taking the lead at 25-24, but this time the script was flipped, and the Saints salvaged their match by winning the next three points.
This time the momentum stayed with SCCC as they used a 9-0 run to take a 15-6 lead in the fourth set and capped off a 25-12 set win with a 7-1 run in the final points to send the match to a fifth.
The Golden Eagles opened the final set with the early lead, but they couldn't make it stick, falling behind 3-2 and they were never able to regain the lead, dropping the set 15-9 and falling in the match to the Saints 3-2.
MCC 3 LCCC 2 – 19-25, 14-25, 25-16, 25-19, 13-15
The final match of the day for the Golden Eagles was also the final match of the tournament and the host Indians looked to be in trouble early in the opening set. Strong play by the LCCC outside hitters helped the Golden Eagles to establish a 13-10 lead and forced a McCook timeout.
The Indians came out with a new strategy, and it seemed to work, reeling off a 13-4 run before a pair of Adriana Deming kills snapped the skid for LCCC at 23-19. The set would go to the Indians 25-19, and they took the early edge.
Set two was another close back-and-forth affair through the middle and the two sides were in a dead even heat at twelve all, but another long 13-2 run by the Indians took much of the air out of the LCCC sails and had them down 2-0 in the match after dropping the set 25-14.
LCCC showed their resolve in the third set and came out swinging, both figuratively and literally, taking an early 5-1 lead. They would never trail in the set.
McCook came closest to evening the score at 10-9 until Maria Rawlek ended a short 3-0 run by the Indians with a kill. From there, LCCC went on an 8-3 rally to push the lead to six and had another 7-2 run to close the set with a dominant 25-16 win.
The fourth set was where the Golden Eagles really extracted a level of revenge and methodically pulled away, showing the consistent scoring they had used to go 2-0 on day one of the tournament, and after the match was tied at 13, an Elysiana Fonseca kill helped to spart a rally that was paced by herself, along with Deming and Nina Jasiecka to close the set on a 12-6 run.
Thoughts of a reverse sweep had LCCC off to a hot start in the fifth and deciding set. They started off spreading the ball around to five different players who recorded a point on the way to an 8-1 advantage in the race to 15.
The swap of sides seemed to swap the momentum though. LCCC saw the gap close to 10-8 before rallying back up by five and the Golden Eagles were within a pair of points of a match win. McCook found something extra though and finished the match with the final seven points to drop the Golden Eagles for the second time on the day with a 15-13 set win to take the five-set match.
The losses dropped LCCC to 2-2 on the year. The Golden Eagles will be back in action on Thursday night when they host Central Arizona College at home in the first match to be played at the Blue FCU RAC.
Opening serve is scheduled for 6:00 pm, and it is the kickoff to the Mariotte Springhill Suites Cheyenne Invitational which will be held on Friday and Saturday. The Golden Eagles will also have matches with New Mexico Military Institute on Friday night at 7:00 pm and two on Saturday with defending national champion Florida Southwestern State College before closing out the match with Colby Community College.
Tickets for the matches are five dollars and can be purchased at www.golccc.com/tickets. More information, including streaming information, can be found at www.golccc.com.