LEWISTON, Idaho – The Lewis-Clark State College women’s volleyball team made quick work of Montana Tech in a Frontier Conference match at the Activity Center on Thursday night. The Warriors brought down the Orediggers in three sets 25-20, 25-17, 25-9 to improve to 12-1 overall and a perfect 3-0 in conference play.
Hitting .284 overall, the Warriors’ offense wasn’t quite a smooth in the early stages of the match as head coach Jen Greeny wanted it to be, but by the third set the offense was hitting on all cylinders.
“I thought we played extremely well in the third set,” said Greeny. “We weren’t too clean in the first two sets, but we came out with more energy and purpose in the third.”
The Warriors, which remained at No. 11 in the most recent NAIA poll, never trailed Tech during the match, but the two teams did lock scores at 11-11 in the first set, and 8-8 in the second. In the third, LCSC opened with six unanswered points and ended up jumping to an 11-1 lead.
Although multiple hitters had a piece of the action, Kelli Tikker, Deddiy Alaimaleata, and Nicole Graybeal gathered up the majority of the kills for the Warriors. Tikker had 11 and a hitting percentage of .458, Alaimaleata had 10 with a .400 mark, and Graybeal had eight with a percentage of .467.
LCSC’s defense also had its shining moments as held it the Orediggers to a .032 percentage and finished with eight team blocks and 48 digs. Jenika Bird Jeppson had four block assists, and Katie Hinrichs led with 22 digs.
Hinrichs also had three service aces and led her squad to a 6-1 advantage in aces. LCSC setter Kim Fong and Montana Tech setter Kiara Ross both finished with 21 assists on the night.
The loss drops Tech to 9-7 overall and 1-2 in conference play.
Katie Daly led Montana Tech with eight kills, and was one of only two Orediggers to finish with a positive hitting percentage.
Next up on the Warriors’ slate is a 2 p.m. match on Saturday with Montana Western. As a promotion to benefit the YWCA, anyone who brings two cans of food to the Activity Center gate will receive free admission to the match.
