BILLINGS, Mont. - After clinching the Frontier Conference regular season the night before, the Lewis-Clark State College women's volleyball team suffered only its second loss of the season in falling to Rocky Mountain College 25-13, 25-19, 20-25, 30-28 in the regular-season finale for both teams on Friday night.
The Warriors, 25-2 overall and 12-2 in conference play, won their second straight conference title on Thursday night with a wild five-set win over Carroll College.
The Warriors, however, couldn't overcome a slow start on Friday and ran into a hot RMC team, which finishes second in the conference standings at 11-3 and is 17-7 overall.
"First of all, they have an absolutely fantastic team," LCSC coach Jen Greeny said of the Bears. "They had five players in double figure kills against us so they had a lot of weapons working. And we started off slow and you can't do that against a good team."
Greeny said she didn't think there was a letdown by her team after winning the title on Thursday, but rather it seemed LCSC showed the effects of a five-game match from the night before and then traveling from Helena to Billings, while RMC swept Westminster at home.
The Warriors also were without junior right-side hitter Dana Christiansen for the second straight match. Christiansen suffered a high ankle sprain two weeks ago and re-injured the ankle last week in a win over Westminster. The Warrior coaching staff is hoping Christiansen will be ready next Friday for the opening round of the conference tournament.
Christiansen is the second LCSC starter to be injured and miss time this season. Freshman Josi Lyman suffered a season-ending knee injury earlier this year.
Against RMC, Anile Clemente led the Warrior attack with 15 kills and 16 digs, while Julie Maciboba continued her strong play with 13 kills, six service aces, and five blocks. Lindsay Scott added 23 digs, while Austyn Lewis had seven blocks. Lisa Davis had 22 assists.
"It wasn't pretty but we now know we are going to have to come out ready to play," Greeny said.
The conference tournament will be held at the LCSC Activity Center and all eight teams will participate in single-elimination play. The four opening round matches will be played on Friday, with the semifinals to follow on Saturday morning. The championship match will be Saturday evening.
Pairings for the tournament will be decided once all Frontier Conference teams are finished with the regular season on Saturday night.
