LCSC splits in final day at Holiday Inn
 Express Challenge
8-26-06 

After a strong opening match, the Lewis-Clark State College women’s volleyball team had a to settle for a split on Saturday to finish the eight-team Holiday Inn Express Region I Challenge at the LCSC Activity Center with a 2-2 record. 

The Warriors defeated Corban College 31-29, 26-30, 30-21, 30-21 by using a strong all-around effort, but then ran into a tough Northwest University squad and fell 30-25, 30-19, 30-18. 

The tournament matched four teams from each the Frontier Conference and Cascade Conference in round-robin play. Teams only faced colleges from the other conference and the Frontier Conference got the best of the Cascade Conference 10-6. 

Rocky Mountain was the only team to finish with a perfect 4-0 record to lead the FC. Northwest College and Carroll College both posted 3-1 records, while host Lewis-Clark State and Oregon Tech went 2-2. Corban College and Montana State-Northern went 1-3, while Cascade College went winless at 0-4. 

“I think we did alright and played alright this weekend,” LCSC coach Erin Mellinger said. “We know what we did well, what we need to work on and where we need to go from here.” 

The Warriors, 2-3 overall,  used a variety of lineups during the weekend and things clicked in the win over Corban as several players contributed. Sophomore middle hitter Julie Maciboba of Kennewick had 14 kills and 16 digs, freshman Kelly Scott of Moscow had 13 kills and freshman Dana Christiansen of Idaho Falls had 10 kills. Sophomore Lindsay Scott of Kennewick added nine kills and 19 digs. Freshman Lisa Davis of Genesee had 40 assists and 21 digs. LCSC also collected seven service aces. 

“Obviously I thought we did some good things,” Melling said. “We utilized several different players in the offense and we changed our lineup up quite a bit. I felt we played to our potential.” 

The Warriors continued that strong play in the first game against Northwest University, but couldn’t maintain its consistency in falling. 

“In that first game, we competed and played at our level,” Mellinger said. “That is the toughest team here who we competed against. We just broke down in the second and third games. We needed to have some solid blocks and put some balls away.”

Kelly Scott finished with 11 kills to pace LCSC, while Maciboba added eight kills and seven digs. Dawn Ingham led the Warriors with 13 digs, while Davis had 26 assists.

Mellinger praised her team’s defense and serve-receive performance in the tournament. 

Next up for LCSC is a two-day tournament this Friday and Saturday in Irvine, Calif. The Warriors will play two matches against teams ranked in the top five among all NAIA schools. 

In other matches Saturday, Rocky Mountain started the day with a 23-30, 30-25, 30-23, 30-22 win over Oregon Tech, and followed it up with a 30-19, 30-10, 30-25 triumph over Cascade. Northwest College, which lost a tough five-game match to Rocky Mountain to open the tournament on Friday, handed Carroll its only loss on Saturday, claiming a tight 30-28, 30-27, 30-28 win. Also, Montana State-Northern stopped Cascade 30-19, 30-10, 30-25, Carroll defeated Corban 30-17, 30-16, 26-30, 30-21, and Oregon Tech topped MSU-Northern 30-27, 30-20, 30-17.