LEWISTON, Idaho – After one of the most successful seasons in the last decade, the Lewis-Clark State Volleyball Team is preparing to head to Butte, Mont. for the Frontier Conference Tournament. The fourth-seeded Warriors will take on the fifth-seeded Carroll College Fighting Saints in a rematch of the regular-season finale.
Under the guidance of first-year head coach
Shaun Pohlman, the Warriors got off to the best start since 2010, jumping out to a 10-2 record in their first 12 games. A win over William Jessup sparked an eight-game winning streak that ranged from Aug. 25 to Sept. 14. LC finished the Frontier Conference season with a 6-6 record, 16-8 overall.
"We've worked all year to form a team that will be able to compete well at this tournament," Pohlman said. "We have talked all season about creating a new sense of Warrior Volleyball, and just about every meeting we have held has been about breaking old behaviors and habits to create new ones."
The Warriors split the season series with Carroll, dropping the match in Helena, Mont. in four (25-22, 23-25, 19-25, 14-25), before avenging the loss on Senior Day at home with a sweep (25-21, 25-19, 25-16).
Rachel Gregg led the team in kills in the victory with 16.
Gionni Brown had 21 digs and
Lauren West dished out 31 assists.
Gregg currently leads the Frontier Conference in kills per set at 3.8, while West leads in assists per set (9.8) and service aces per set (0.4). LC leads the conference as a team in kills per set (13.1), assists per set (12.1) and service aces per set (1.6).
"My first strategic team goal was to make our offense (kills, assists and aces) the top in the conference," Pohlman said. "Many people complain about missed serves, but there is no data out there that shows missing serves equates to losing. There is very strong data that indicates serving tough correlates very strongly to winning, however."
The Fighting Saints are currently on a two-match losing skid after dropping contests with Montana Tech and LC. They begin the Frontier Conference Tournament as the No. 5 seed after finishing the season with a 6-6 record, 19-14 overall. 2-7 on the road, their only away victories came against MSU-Northern and Montana Western.
Senior Brielle Bumgarner currently leads the Frontier Conference in hitting percentage at a clip of .273, and leads the team with 334 kills (3.04 per set). She also leads the conference in total blocks with 132. Rayna Pilgeram has dished out a total of 852 assists for the Saints and Ayla Carpenter has tallied 559 digs.
The Warriors will open the tournament on Friday at 1 p.m. against Carroll, and the winner will move on to the Semifinals. The lowest remaining seed will play No. 8 Rocky Mountain College at 10 a.m. on Saturday, with the Championship Game at 7 p.m.
"The question will remain as it has all season – will each member act in the best interest of the team or just for themselves as individuals?" Pohlman said. "The program we want to build here can only come from the blood, sweat, and tears of people wanting to contribute to something bigger than themselves – something to last a lifetime."
