SCOTTSBLUF, NE – The Laramie County Community College volleyball team gave #20 Western Nebraska Community College all they could handle on Tuesday night but fell 3-1 (25-16, 22-25, 25-23, 31-29) in their final non-conference match of the season.
"They were a good solid Region IX opponent," Shaver said. "We gave ourselves a chance to win. We just have to execute a few more plays at the end of those sets and coming out a little bit stronger in the first set would have been helpful too."
The opening set began rough for LCCC when the Cougars jumped out to an 11-3 lead due to some miscues at the net from the Golden Eagles. LCCC was able to steady the ship though and closed the gap to a close as five before the set finished with WNCC taking the open salvo 25-16.
Set two seemed to be going the wrong way for the Golden Eagles again at the midway point when they saw a 14-7 lead for WNCC on the scoreboard.
A small surge forced Western Nebraska to call a timeout at 18-13 but the real damage came at 21-15 when Maria Rawlek went to the back line to serve. The freshman went on a six-point run that gave LCCC the lead 22-21 and they took that momentum into a 25-22 set win.
"We started executing our gameplan better. We were focused on little parts of the game instead of winning and losing the match and I think that's what allowed us to execute better and make a run," Shaver said.
With both teams awake, the third set was a nailbiter. Neither side led by more than two at any point in the game there were 11 ties and 5 lead changes on the way to a heartbreaking 25-23 set loss for LCCC to give the Cougars the 2-1 lead.
Shaver said the third set was fun for him to be on the sidelines for.
"I actually was able to stay relaxed as a coach because they really were just doing their jobs and executing. We didn't have to coach much other than little things here and there and it allowed us as coaches to be a little more focused on the other side of the net."
The fourth continued the trend of strong volleyball from the two teams. The first 10 points of the match were earned off of kills and LCCC got the best of it with a 6-4 advantage.
They continued the push to a 15-9 lead and held that cushion until 22-17, when the Cougars made their run. WNCC closed the gap to 23-21 and eventually tied it at 24 to force extra points. LCCC had the opening set point at 25-24 and would again at 27-26, but each time WNCC was able to stave it off until they were able to clinch the final break to take the set 31-30 and the match 3-1.
"We've got to figure out once we've got the lead and a chance to go on and close it out when the other team is going to play their best. We just left too many gaps in the block at the end and gave them too many easy serves and easy attacks," Shaver said.
The fourth set was the longest set of the season played by LCCC.
Lea Susoy led the team in kills with 15 and was joined by Adrianna Deming and Elysiana Fonseca with 12 and 10 respectively.
Nayomi Toilolo was the lead setter on the night with 35 assists and added another two aces to go with it. Addison Schreurs finished with another seven assists.
Defensively, Savannah Cummings was the lead digger with 22. Both Deming and Susoy finished with double doubles thanks to 16 digs for Deming and 15 for Susoy. The team finished with eight blocks led by Fonseca with four and three more from Susoy.
LCCC returns to conference play on Friday night when they host Northwest College at 6:00 pm at the Blue FCU RAC. Tickets are available along with more information at www.golccc.com.