LEWISTON, Idaho – The 25th-ranked Lewis-Clark State College volleyball team has hit a rough patch in losing its fifth straight match, this time a 25-17, 25-19, 25-23 setback against Montana State University – Northern inside the LCSC Activity Center on Saturday afternoon.
It was the first touch that did in LCSC on Saturday as the Warriors fell to 6-9 on the season and just 2-4 in the Frontier Conference where they are 2.5 games behind leader Carroll who is 4-1. Northern improves to 4-11 on the year and 3-3 in conference play, 1.5 games back.
"When you look at the standings everyone is bunched up together," said Warriors Head Coach
LaToya Harris-Alexander. "I can't ever remember a team I've coached being at the bottom of the standings, but we still have half our conference games left. We need to turn it around and we can still get where we want to go."
The issue for LCSC today was the serve receive. The Skylights tallied six service aces and had numerous opportunities at free balls to get in an offensive rhythm.
"This is the college game, I don't care who you are playing, if you give the other team free passes they'll make you pay and Northern took advantage of our mistakes today," added Harris-Alexander.
The Warriors offense couldn't find a rhythm and didn't have an answer for Cassie Krueger and Timi Severson who combined 28 kills in the match.
LCSC opened with a
Stephanie Ovitz kill, but the Skylights scored 14 of the next 20 points to take a 14-7 lead in set one. Krueger tallied four of her match-high 16 kills in the run. The Warriors tried to fight back but failed to score more than two consecutive points in the set while MSUN scored the final five points on three kills, an LCSC attack error and a service ace to cap the win.
In set two, the Warrior offense hit an impressive .345, but Northern hit .514 led by Krueger's six kills. Three of those kills powered the Skylights 6-0 run to open the set. After falling down 8-1, the Warriors scored five straight thanks to
Kennadie Clute. The senior tallied a block and two kills to go with two Skylight attack errors to make it 8-6. LCSC cut the margin to one on three separate occasions, the last coming at 12-11, but couldn't put a run together. The Skylights outscored the Warriors 13-8 to take a 2-0 match lead.
It didn't get much better to begin set three as the visitors stormed out to a 14-5 advantage that included three service aces and four Warrior attack errors. LCSC didn't quit though, using a 6-1 run to cut the margin to three, 18-15.
Katie Barton tallied a pair of kills to go with two Skylight attack errors, an Ovitz kill and a
Shaelyn Pearson ace.
After trading a few points the visitors took a 24-19 lead on a Warrior attack error. Kills by Barton and Clute followed by back-to-back block assists by Ovitz and Clute made it 24-23. However, a Krueger kill sealed the sweep for MSU-Northern.
"We have to get back to being disciplined individually, like we were at the beginning of camp this fall," Harris-Alexander explained. "This last set today, we knew we had to compete at the end and we did. We need to show that fire and aggressiveness from the outset of every set. It's hard to be committed to the little things when things don't go your way, but we need to come together and stay committed to our approach to break our slump."
LCSC hit just .191 in the match compared to a .294 mark for the Skylights. Clute continued her streak with 14 kills to go with seven digs and four blocks while Ovitz finished with 11 kills, six digs and two blocks.
Amber Hillestad totaled a team-best 27 assists and 12 digs with
Jordan Phelan adding 11 digs and Pearson chipping in 10.
Krueger finished with 16 kills to lead the Skylights with Severson totaling 12.
The Warriors look to avenge one of their conference losses next Saturday, Oct. 8 when they host Rocky Mountain College at 2 p.m. It's the last of three-straight home contests before the Warriors hit the road for three. Happy Day will be sponsoring the game that will serve as Dig Pink night, a chance to raise support and awareness for breast cancer.
