GILLETTE, WY – It was a bit of a roller coaster ride, but the Laramie County Community College volleyball team rallied in the fourth set to finish off a 3-1 (25-15, 25-14, 21-25, 27-25) win over the Gillette Pronghorns on Friday night to move to 5-3 in conference play.
The opening set saw some rough play from both sides, but the Golden Eagles got the best of it, taking a 5-1 advantage and going back up 13-7 after the Pronghorns evened the match at seven all. LCCC didn't let them get anywhere near the lead again, outscoring Gillette 12-8 on the way to the finish to take the opening set 25-15 and set the tone.
Set two was even more convincing for LCCC after the Golden Eagles stomped their way to a 9-0 advantage before a block at the net finally gave the Pronghorns a point. Another seven-point rally that pushed the lead to 20-6 late assured the set win despite a late push by Gillette that helped them gain some momentum with an 8-5 run to close out the second.
LCCC still held the 2-0 edge though after the 25-14 win.
"(Gillette) didn't play very well and we took advantage," Head Coach Zach Shaver said. "Our serving was key tonight. In the first two sets we caused them to be way out of system
The third set seemed like it would go the Golden Eagles way again until a 6-0 run handed Gillette a 6-3 lead and forced Shaver to call a timeout. LCCC responded well, tying the game at six all, and again at eight, nine, and ten, but the Pronghorns wouldn't go away, keeping the LCCC attack at arm's length.
A 4-1 run from Gillette moved the advantage to 20-16 and sealed the win after the two sides traded points to close out the 25-21 set to keep the match alive for the Pronghorns and move the match to a fourth.
"(Gillette) was playing defense and transitioning," Shaver said of the Pronghorns win. "We weren't playing any defense so we didn't give ourselves a chance to score in transition."
Gillette seemed to be in a groove by that point and ten points into the fourth set, it seemed they were taking control, going up 8-2 and forcing another Shaver timeout to calm the nerves.
"I told them we have to take it one or two plays at a time because we were getting to where we were tense again and playing the ball with poor technique, so we got our minds straight and at the very end our more confident players took over in Lea, Elysiana, and Addison and got the job done."
The team steadied themselves and fought back to tie the game at eleven and even take the lead at 13-11, but that was just the start of the action. Nine lead changes followed that, and five lead changes went with it as both teams fought tooth and nail to take the game.
Down 23-20, it seemed like LCCC was due for another fifth set, but the team rallied around a few key players and won seven of the final nine points to not only force extra's but win the fourth 27-25 to quiet the home crowd and earn the four-set win.
The offense was paced by a 16 kill match from Elysiana Fonseca who also tallied three blocks while hitting .389 on 36 attacks. The sophomore is only eleven kills away from surpassing her mark from 2023 of 271 kills in a season.
Lea Susoy was the only other Golden Eagle to reach double figures, collecting another double-double with 13 kills and 11 digs.
Addison Schreurs picked up another 40 assists in the match to move her season tally to 850 with four matches remaining in the regular season to become the sixth player in school history to record 1000 assists in a year.
On the defensive side, Savannah Cummings also continued her strong season as the libero for LCCC, collecting 28 digs. She also moved into the school record books as the sixth player in school history to record six aces in a match. Only two players have recorded more in program history.
LCCC will have some time to focus on a big road trip for the team as they will make the swing through the northern part of the conference next weekend with matches against Central Wyoming College on the 25th and Northwest College on the 26th. The Golden Eagles won both matches at home against the two teams and will look to clinch a postseason spot on the trip.
Information on the schedule and more on the LCCC volleyball team can be found at www.golccc.com.