The Lewis-Clark State College women’s volleyball team moved closer to claiming a least a share of the Frontier Conference regular season title by defeating Rocky Mountain College 25-18, 18-25, 25-22, 25-20 before a season-high crowd of 985 at the LCSC Activity Center on Thursday night.
The Warriors, who have won the last two titles outright, can do no worse than a tie for first with a victory over Carroll College on Saturday in the regular-season finale for both. Carroll, which defeated Westminster in five sets on Thursday night, leads the Frontier Conference with an 11-2 mark, while LCSC is 10-3 and Great Falls is 9-3.
The Warriors, ranked No. 23 in the NAIA with a 19-7 mark, put themselves in title contention with a strong effort against Rocky Mountain on Thursday. The Bears defeated LCSC in straight sets earlier this season in Billings, Mont.
The Warriors got off to a solid start in the first set, opening up leads of 6-3 and then 17-12. Rocky, 18-10 overall and 7-6 in conference play, cut the margin to 19-15, but kills by Lauryn Herrick and Anile Clemente helped LCSC push the margin to 22-16. A combined block by Dana Christiansen and Jenika Bird, and then another kill by Clemente helped the Warriors close out the game.
In the second set, the Bears grabbed the early lead and led by at much as 16-8 before LCSC cut the margin to five. The Warriors, however, couldn’t get closer the rest of the way as the Bears closed out the set.
“I liked the way we came out in set one, but then we had some trouble passing in set two,” LCSC coach Jennifer Greeny said. “But we fought back.”
The Warriors fell behind 3-0 in the third set before it scored seven straight points. Still, the Bears were able to fight back and tie the contest five times before they grabbed a 19-17 advantage. With the match tied at 21, RMC appeared to score the go-ahead point, but was called for a back row attack error. A kill by Herrick and a service ace by Kim Fong made it 24-21 for LCSC and another kill by Herrick helped the Warriors close out the set.
In the fourth set, LCSC took the lead for good at 11-10 and led by as much as 20-13 before finally closing out the match.
“I’m letting out a deep breath,” Greeny said. “This was a tough match but we had a nice team effort tonight.”
Clemente led the Warriors with 16 kills and 12 digs, while Christiansen had nine kills. Dani Barrett and Herrick added eight each. Katie Hinrichs added 25 digs, while Lisa Davis had 22 assists and Kim Fong 21.
LCSC hit .179 for the match, compared to .109 for RMC. Both teams finished with 10 blocks. Bird and Barrett led the Warriors with three blocks apiece.
Saturday’s match features $1 admission for all seats and there will be a special pre-function at Southway Pizzeria & Deli at 12:30 p.m. Saturday’s match also is Senior Day where the Warriors will honor their four seniors – Barrett, Christiansen, Clemente, and Davis.
