LEWISTON, Idaho – National polls went out the window in Saturday's Frontier Conference volleyball match between the Lewis-Clark State Warriors and the No. 16 Montana Tech Orediggers. The Warriors rode the momentum from Friday's dominating win over Carroll to hand the Diggers just their fourth loss of the season. The 3-1 (25-19, 12-25, 25-22, 26-24) victory was the perfect finale for Homecoming Weekend 2019.
"It's great to see them transition into being more of the type of team that wants to finish and wants to take care of the job," coach Shaun Pohlman said. "I think every teams wants to see their team transform and get better and this weekend was an opportunity to see that. It was amazing to see that come to fruition."
Brooke Kaawa was a force to be reckoned with on offense, tallying 17 kills with a .289 hitting percentage. Gionni Brown continued to climb the LC State volleyball record books with 26 digs. Jess Ruffing ran the offense with 28 assists.
"I really think that Jess Ruffing was a very steady pace for us, which is what we needed," Pohlman said of the junior setter. "There was definitely a team leadership and team effort to be able to pull this one out. That's a really good team. Talent-wise they may be better than us, but our x-factor isn't talent so we will have to give that little bit of heart, little bit of gusto and little bit of pride in what we do and that needs to be more of an x-factor."
Montana Tech took the early lead in the first set, jumping out in front 5-2. A kill by Kaawa and a pair by Denise Elder gave LC its first lead of the match at 7-6, but the Diggers surged back to pull ahead 13-10. Swings from Jordan Hunter and Kaawa and a block by Sydney Lawrence and Kaawa knotted things at 13-13 before a Tori Edwards' kill gave LC a 15-14 lead. Kills by Kaawa and Carli Berntson extended the advantage to 18-15, and a five-point run with kills by Hunter, Edwards and Lawrence ended the set 25-19. The Warriors hit .317 in the set.
The Orediggers responded well in the second frame, pulling ahead 12-6 to take control of the set. A massive seven-point rally grew their advantage to 23-11 and they went on to claim the set 25-12.
LC State did not take kindly to the second-set loss, bouncing back as strong as ever to regain the lead in the match. Edwards sparked a six-point run that featured three kills by Kaawa to put the Warriors in front 9-5. A pair of service aces by Kenzie Dean kept LC ahead 12-6, but an 8-1 run by Montana Tech put the Diggers ahead 18-17. The Warriors answered with four-straight on two MT errors and two aces by Edwards to take the lead back at 21-18. A kill by Edwards, block by Elder and Jess Ruffing and another ace by Dean made it 24-19, and a swing by Hunter of an assist from Ruffing gave the Warriors a 25-22 set win and a 2-1 lead in the match.
Kills by Hunter and Kaawa put LC State in front 4-1 early in the third frame. Montana Tech rallied to take a 10-8 lead, but the Warriors used a pair of kills by Edwards and Hunter to tie the set 11-11. A five-point rally that included blocks by Kaawa, Elder and Edwards, a kill by Elder and an ace by Brown pushed LC in front 16-12. The Orediggers kept it close with a rally to take a two-point lead at 19-17, but a 6-1 run by the Warriors with a kill by Kaawa, blocks by Elder and Berntson, and an ace by Elyse Booker kept LC ahead by a slim margin at 23-20. The Warriors fought off a set point at 23-24, and utilized back-to-back kills by Edwards to take the set 26-24 for the 3-1 match win.
Kaawa led the match with 17 kills, and Edwards added 13. Hunter tallied a career-high nine kills. Brown's 26 digs tied her for ninth all-time in double figure dig matches (43). It is the 17th match with at least 20 digs in her career. Ruffing dished out 28 assists and Dean had three service aces. The Warriors dealt seven aces as a team.
Maureen Jessop led Montana Tech with 13 kills with a hitting percentage of .222. McKenna Kaelber dished out a match-high 31 assists. Three Orediggers had double-digit dig performances led by Sabrina Hopcroft with 18. Karina Mickelson had 14 and Gena McMillan had 10.
The Warriors head to Iowa next week to take part in the Grand View Tournament in Des Moines. They open the tournament on Oct. 11 against No. 24 Oklahoma City at 12:30 p.m. PT, and close the day with Huntington at 5:30 p.m. PT.
