PORTLAND, Ore. -- Faced with its first loss of the season, the Lewis-Clark State College women's volleyball team scored nine of the final 10 points in the fifth game to defeat Concordia University 25-16, 21-25, 23-25, 25-13, 15-10 to finish 2-0 in the opening day of the Cavalier Invitational on Friday.
The Warriors, 6-0 on the season, opened the five-team round-robin tournament with a 25-11, 25-15, 25-14 win and then later managed to overcome the final-game deficit to defeat the host team.
LCSC, which is ranked No. 16 in the NAIA, won its first five matches of the season in straight sets, including a 25-15, 25-14, 25-15 win over Concordia in a tournament at Lewiston last weekend. The Warriors, however, found a different Cavalier team waiting on Friday.
"It was a very tough match," LCSC coach Jen Greeny said. "Concordia played very well and we struggled with the little things. You can't do that and fall behind and then expect to win."
LCSC trailed 4-0 and 9-6 in the fifth game against Concordia, but sophomore Katie Hinrichs got the ball rolling for the Warriors and her serving helped the Warriors close out the match.
"That comeback showed a lot of fight by the girls," Greeny said. "That gave us a ton of experience which should help us later on."
Anile Clemente led LCSC with 17 kills, while Lauryn Herrick added 14. Freshman Abby Bruya had 22 assists, while Lisa Davis added 21. Senior Lindsay Scott had 20 digs, while Hinrichs added 13 digs and three kills. Austyn Lewis chipped in with five blocks.
In the win over Holy Names, the Warriors hit .418 in the match, compared to .012 for HNU. LCSC also controlled the net play with 6.5 blocks, compared to one for Holy Names.
Clemente again led the Warriors with 11 kills, while Lewis and Sadie Lazzarini had five kills each. Josi Lyman and Caitlin Barschig added four kills.
"We talked about establishing ourselves early and we did a nice job with that," Greeny said. "We had a lot of people play and contribute."
The Warriors complete tournament play on Saturday with matches against Northwest University at 11:45 a.m., and finish against fellow Frontier Conference foe Montana State-Northern at 3:30 p.m. Northwest split its two matches on Friday, while MSU-Northern went 0-2.
