DES MOINES, Iowa – Following the split in Friday's matches, the Lewis-Clark State volleyball team came back with a vengeance by sweeping the day with wins over St. Ambrose (Iowa) 3-1 (25-17, 25-19, 26-28, 25-15) and Cardinal Stritch (Wis.) 3-0 (25-15, 25-21, 25-11).

The Warriors show that one loss did not define their performance at the Grand View Tournament.

"Saturday we emphasized doing our own job and each of us taking on our roles," senior libero Gionni Brown said. "We played as a team and executed Warrior volleyball. The weekend was full of opportunities to grow and push through pressure. We discovered challenges that we had to overcome after our first match."

"We got together and made it a goal to fight no matter the outcome, and trust our training," freshman Carli Berntson said. "We took accountability to do it the Warrior Way and focused more on executing our system instead of defending against our opponents."
 
MATCH ONE: Lewis-Clark State defeats St. Ambrose 3-1 (25-17, 25-19, 26-28, 25-15)
The Warriors began their second of two doubleheaders by defeating the Fighting Bees in four sets.

The Warriors put themselves in the driver's seat right from the get go when they opened up the match on a 6-0 run and never looked back. Later in the set, with the score 15-12, Lewis-Clark State put together a four-point run, including two aces from Brown, to pull away from the Fighting Bees and go on to win the first set 25-17.

The second set was a back-and-forth battle primarily controlled by the Warriors. Even though St. Ambrose kept it close, it controlled the lead for just three points for the entire second set. With the score close at 13-12, a kill by Tori Edwards, two St. Ambrose errors and another kill from Edwards, the Warriors quickly made it 17-12 and kept that pace until a 25-19 victory.

St. Ambrose showed it still had some fight left in it by taking the third set 28-26. En route to a third set victory, the Fighting Bees capped off the set with a 3-0 run. Despite the valiant effort, the Warriors sealed the match victory with a 25-15 win in the fourth set.

Three Warriors had double-digit kills in Brooke Kaawa (12), Morgan Ness (11) and Edwards (10). Brown led the way in digs (18), while Josilyn Remick paced the Warrior offensive attack with 29 assists. The Warrior had 13 total aces in the match led by Brown and Ruffing with five, and Remick with three.
 
MATCH TWO: Lewis-Clark State defeats Cardinal Stritch 3-0 (25-15, 25-21, 25-11)
Without much time in between matches, Lewis-Clark State kept the good juices flowing as it captured another win over Cardinal Stitch.

The Warriors fell behind early but kept it close at 9-7 during the first set before exploding for a 10-point swing to take the lead 17-9. The 10-point run was led by Remick who had the Wolves' heads spinning with four aces. The Warriors cruised to a smooth 25-15 win.

Lewis-Clark State continued to bend, but did not break as Cardinal Stritch put up a strong fight in the second set. The Warriors and Wolves exchanged shots throughout the entire set with both teams having small stretches of consecutive points. With the score knotted at 20, the Wolves were hoping to steal a set from LC State, but with a kill from Sydney Lawrence to make it 21-20, the Warriors went on to win the next four out of five point to win the second set 25-21.

The Warriors left no doubt by dominating the third with a combination of a potent offensive attack and the miscues from Cardinal Stritch to win 25-11.

Warrior hitters Edwards (10), Kaawa (8) and Ness (8) set the pace up front with all three nearly having double-digit kills, while Remick (5), Brown (3) and Jordan Phelan (1) gave the Wolves all they could handle with some wicked serves.

"We learned and developed as a team and we are super excited to take this momentum and high energy into the next round of conference knowing that everything we've had to overcome has prepared us to play Warrior volleyball," Brown said. "Knowing that there will be tough teams, we have to focus on maintaining our flow, fine tuning the small things and continue to move forward. Overall, we can't wait to show everyone the Warrior Way."

The Warriors look to get back in action Oct. 25 at 6 p.m. PT at MSU-Northern.