VOLLEYBALL
After a 1-1 weekend to start the 2023 season, Lewis-Clark State Volleyball is Arizona bound. LC opened the year with a 3-0 sweep of Walla Walla in Cascade Conference action, then fell to a talented Montana Western team in four sets.
The Warriors will travel to Surprise for four matches at the OUAZ Invitational, hosted by Ottawa (Ariz.). LC will take on OUAZ on Thursday before a rematch with UMW on Friday. Warrior Volleyball is set to take on Arizona Christian on Friday as well before closing out the trip against MSU-Northern on Saturday morning.
“We’re looking forward to traveling down to Arizona for a competitive three days of volleyball,” Head Coach Katie Palmer said. “We’re going to get tested right from the beginning by an OUAZ squad with some veteran players on their home court. We’ll have to learn how to prepare on the road and bring energy without our home crowd.”
LC has never faced OUAZ, but is very familiar with Montana Western. The Warriors took the first set against the Bulldogs on Saturday before dropping the next three 25-23 in each hard-fought set. Sophomore Juliauna Forgach Aguilar tallied a career-high 23 kills in the match and fifth-year senior libero Kenzie Dean had 26 digs.
The Warriors faced ACU for the first time in 2021 and fell in three sets at the Firestorm’s early-season tournament. LC is much more familiar with former Frontier Conference foe MSU-Northern and are 17-7 against the Skylights dating back to 2010. The last meeting came at ACU’s 2021 tournament where LC fell 3-1.
“I’m looking forward to a rematch with Montana Western to see if we can make some adjustments against a team that will do great things in the Frontier Conference,” Palmer added. “Speaking of Frontier Conference, it will be fun to play Northern as they’re coached by Jerry Wagner who I had the pleasure of coaching against early on in my career, and I know he’ll have his team prepared.”
All matches will be streamed by OUAZ and live stats will be available.
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