STERLING, CO – The final tournament of the regular season for the Laramie County Community College volleyball team finished on a positive note with two of the best matches of the year for the Golden Eagles against a pair of ranked teams.
The Golden Eagles pushed #15 New Mexico Junior College to five sets before taking down #10 Indian Hills Community College in five to cap off a stretch of six straight matches against teams in the top 20 or receiving votes, and their eighth ranked opponent of the non-conference schedule.
"I'm super proud of the girls," Head Coach Zach Shaver said. "Our conditioning paid off with five long sets and almost every one of them were two-point wins or losses in each set. We really improved as we went, controlled our errors and started executing at a higher level."
LCCC 2 #15 New Mexico JC 3 – 25-23, 25-21, 25-27, 23-25, 15-17
The Golden Eagles woke up hungry for a win and came out aggressively in the opening set but had to work late in the set for the win. Trailing 17-20, LCCC closed the opening set with an 8-3 run to win and get the early lead.
They followed with another strong showing in the second set, if not more impressive, keeping New Mexico from really closing into the gap and winning the set 25-21.
Up 2-0, the Golden Eagles woke up their opponent and went into a dog fight of a third set. Neither team was able to break from the other, but at 23-22, LCCC had the opportunity to close it out and couldn't keep NMJC from evening and forcing the set to extra points where they would prevail 25-27.
The battle continued in the fourth set and LCCC was able to tie the game at 17 and again at 22 but couldn't make it stick again, falling 25-23 to force a fifth set for the fourth time this season.
LCCC found themselves trading points early until NMJC broke the match open at 10-7. The Golden Eagles evened the final set at 10 and even took the lead later on thanks to a rotation violation that made it 14-12 in favor of LCCC.
Two kills and a victorious joust for NMJC put them back in front at 15-14 and after the Golden Eagles evened it at 15, New Mexico closed it out with back-to-back points to win a thriller three sets to two.
Nina Jasiecka as a force for LCCC with 17 kills in the five-set match for a season high. Elysiana Fonseca and Lea Susoy also finished with double digit kills. As a team, LCCC hit .126 but saw the percentage drop in the fourth and fifth sets to below .100.
Addison Schreurs had her second-best match in terms of assists with 49 and added two aces. Keani Domingo also finished with three aces along with Paulina Mielniczuk but the team was paced in the morning by Savannah Cummings who finished with five aces.
LCCC 3 #10 Indian Hill CC 2 – 24-26, 25-18, 25-18, 11-25, 15-8
After a full pair of matches to rest, LCCC took to the court to face off against the Warriors of Indian Hills and the opening set almost tipped the scales to the Golden Eagles, just being edged out in extra points 26-24.
The defense clamped down for LCCC from there and they used the confidence gained to put the Warriors on their back heels by taking the next two sets with some of their best attacking play of the season.
LCCC finished the second set with a .261 hitting percentage, but the third was another level, hitting .292 as a team and winning the set by seven despite Indian Hills hitting .259.
In the fourth, the Warriors found something that they liked in the LCCC defense and took advantage of it to the tune of a 25-11 rout. The Warriors hit .684 in the set and LCCC only managed six kills.
That made the fifth seem like it would be a tough battle for the Golden Eagles. Needing a hot start, they did just that, surging to an 8-2 lead at the changeover. Indian Hills closed the gap to just four at 9-5 only to see a service run from Nayomi Toilolo break them away and LCCC cruised to a 15-8 win.
"We went out an earned the points," Shaver said about the victory. "Everybody just really did their job."
Balance was the key in the numbers for LCCC where six different players recorded a kill, and four players finished with between seven to nine kills. Only one had double figures in Adriana Deming who finished with 13.
Schreurs had 39 assists in the match and as a team they combined for seven blocks at the net and ten aces. Cummings rounded out a strong day with 24 digs to go with 25 in the opening match of the day for 49 total in the two five setters.
The tournament wraps up LCCC's non-conference tournament schedule and now they focus on individual Region IX North and South matches, beginning on Thursday when they host #4 Northeastern Junior College at the Blue FCU RAC.
Shaver said he feels the team has been improving enough to compete with any team they play regardless of ranking.
"We have been playing well enough to win every set except for the last three or four points. Then we were making errors when pressure was on and in this last match that went away. We believed in each other and in ourselves enough to execute when the pressure was on."
Opening serve of the match with NJC is scheduled for 6:00 PM and more information can be found for it and the rest of the schedule for LCCC volleyball at www.golccc.com.