BILLINGS, Mont. –  It's the wrong sport, but the Lewis-Clark State College women's volleyball team could have used a closer on Friday night.

After putting together impressive rallies, the Warriors were unable to put on the finishing touches and suffered their first Frontier Conference loss of the season with a 25-21, 25-21, 25-23 setback to Rocky Mountain College.

The Warriors, ranked No. 25 in the latest NAIA poll, fell to .500 on the season at 6-6 with their second straight loss of the week and became the last FC school to lose in conference play. LCSC is now 2-1 in the conference.

Rocky Mountain, the two-time defending conference champion, claimed its first conference win and moved to 1-2 on league and 5-12 overall.

In all three games, the Warriors either led or were tied fairly late in the match after big rallies, but the Battlin' Bears were able to put each game away, thanks to timely kills from Kylie Hadley and Savannah Smith, and untimely hitting errors by the Warriors.

"We made more errors tonight than what we have done in quite a while," LCSC coach LaToya Harris-Alexander said. "In a match like this, unforced errors make it difficult to win. That's what happened. We would have a hitting error or a communication error. It doesn't matter how many wins they have, it's always a battle against them and we didn't step up to the challenge."

The result was another setback in what has been a bad week for the team. LCSC lost a non-league match to Whitworth at home on Tuesday and then had the bus break down twice on its trip to Billings. In fact, the team didn't arrive until in Billings until nearly 2 a.m. Friday morning.

"It was the worst trip I've ever had as a player or a coach," Harris-Alexander said. "But I don't want to make that the reason why we didn't perform. No excuses. We did look like we were exhausted out there and I know I am tired so I can't imagine how the player are feeling. The travel has been hard."
 
In the opening game, which was tied six times, LCSC grabbed a 5-2 lead as senior outside hitter Kennadie Clute had two of her team-high 14 kills while Rachel Gregg added a service ace. The Warriors upped the lead to 9-4, but RMC scored eight of the next 10 points, behind four kills from Smith, for a 12-11 advantage.

After Rocky led 17-14, the Warriors ran off five straight points with kills from Clute, Stephanie Ovitz and Justine Cota for a 19-17 advantage. The Warriors built the lead up to 21-18, but RMC responded with seven straight points for the win. Smith had two kills during the run, while Hadley added a kill and an ace.

The second game was tied five times early as neither team could gain more than a two-point advantage. RMC finally put together a four-point run with the help of three LCSC attack errors for a 12-8 advantage. The lead went to 16-10, but LCSC scored six straight to tie the match as Clute had three kills while Maya Williamson added one.

After the game was tied at 17, RMC used three more LC attack errors to gain a 21-17 advantage. The Warriors cut it to 22-20, but Rocky scored three of the final four points.

The Warriors took the early upper hand in the third game with leads of 2-0, 6-3 and 10-8, but RMC put together a 10-2 run for a 21-16 advantage. Hadley had four kills during the run, while LCSC added three attack errors.

Still, the Warriors responded with six straight points for a 22-21 lead. Gregg had two kills during the run, while Clute and Ovitz added one each. Amber Hillestad added a service ace.

Rocky answered with three of the next four points as Hadley and Andraya Hawks had kills. Gregg answered with a kill for LCSC to cut the margin to 24-23, but Smith ended the match with a kill.

Hadley and Smith paced the Bears and tied Clute for game-high honors with 14 kills apiece. They also helped Rocky hit .246 in the match, compared to .207 and 20 attack errors for LCSC.

Gregg, Cota and Williamson added eight kills apiece for LCSC, which finished with a 49-44 advantage in kills in the match. Hillestad added 21 assists, while Shaelyn Pearson had 14. Gregg finished with 14 digs, while Clute and Ovitz added 12 each, and Jordan Phelan finished with 11.

Harris-Alexander praised the play of Clute, Williamson and Phelan, and also said Cota did a great job in the match after she recently moved to a new position on the court.

The Warriors continue action with a rare Sunday match against Montana Western at 1 p.m., PST, in Dillon, Mont. Montana Western is holding an athletic banquet on Saturday night following its football game and asked for the game to be played on Sunday, which LCSC agreed to.