CHEYENNE, WY – The Laramie County Community College volleyball team took down the Central Wyoming College Rustlers on Friday night in a pivotal Region IX North match that had a lot of weight on the early standings in the conference, taking down the visitors 3-1 (25-19, 21-25, 25-16, 25-17) to move to 7-14 overall and 2-1 in conference play.
"We got pushed a little bit tonight by Central Wyoming and there are spots we need to clean up, but overall, we executed much better tonight, higher hitting percentage, good passing by the serve receive and some good defense once we got past the first set," Head Coach Zach Shaver said.
The match began with a very contentious opening set that LCCC was able to earn the first separation in after the match was tied at nine. A three-point run on miscues by the Rustlers gave the Golden Eagles the lead and they wouldn't trail the remainder of the opening set, pulling away on a run of kills by Elysiana Fonseca to had five of the final six points for the Golden Eagles in the 25-19 win.
Central Wyoming wasn't about to back down though.
The Rustlers surged out to a 5-1 and a 10-6 lead in the second set to establish early control, using their blocking game at the net to slow down the LCCC attack. The Golden Eagles weren't phased and fought back to take the lead late at 18-17.
CWC tied the match at 19 and again at 21 and sealed the set win with a 4-0 run to take it 25-21 and even the two sides at a set apiece.
"Their strength was their block, and I kind of got on our players for giving them too many points. I asked for our players to look for openings and even if it wasn't a super aggressive attack, just to find ways to get it past the block," Shaver said.
LCCC returned the favor of the early run in the third set and took a stranglehold of it with an 8-3 lead behind the three-headed attack of Fonseca, Lea Susoy, and Addison Schreurs. The lead would remain at five for much of the set.
"We played smarter, and we executed good even thought we lost the second set. We came out wanting to win the third set and we did," Susoy said.
It was late that LCCC hammered home the final nails on a pair of Schreurs aces and a pair of Susoy kills that gave the edge going to the fourth to the Golden Eagles with the 25-16 win.
Set four never gave the Rustlers a chance.
LCCC won the opening point and sent out Keani Domingo to open the attack and she was lights out out. A pair of aces for the Hawaiian freshman were paired with strong blocking and attacking and the Golden Eagles wound up in front 8-0 before you could blink.
"The set before I actually missed my last serve, so in my mind I was just saying I have to do this. I have to execute well," Domingo said. "I served aggressively, and I just tried to stay calm and not nervous."
The lead reached double digits at 12-2 and hovered there for the rest of the set until a small run by the Rustlers down 24-12 trimmed the gap to 24-17 but couldn't stave off twelve set points and LCCC took the set and match with a 25-17 win with Susoy fittingly closing the match.
Susoy was the dominant force for LCCC, collecting another double-double with a career high 20 kills and adding ten digs.
"My team and coaches were trusting me and my hitting," Susoy said. "I know that everyone is trusting me when I get up and that makes me more confident."
Fonseca added another 15 kills as the only other Golden Eagle in double digits, leading the team in hitting while she was at it with a .571 for the night. Maria Rawlek finished just behind her with seven kills on a .545 hitting percentage.
"Maria is kind of a quiet unsung hero. She didn't have a ton of kills tonight, but her hitting percentage was way up there so she was affective," Shaver said. "Our strength is our middles as far as our attack right now."
Addison Schreurs tacked on 48 assists and four aces to lead LCCC in both stats, and as a team, the Golden Eagles served for ten aces in the match.
Defensively, four players hit double digits in digs with Savannah Cummings' 16 the top spot. Salaana Akanoa had a career best 15 digs and Paulina Mielniczuk had 12 coming off of the bench.
LCCC is back at it tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 pm when they will host Northwest College at the Blue FCU RAC. Tickets and more information is available at www.golccc.com.