Nicole Graybeal, a 6-foot-2 junior middle blocker from Spokane, has become the fourth Lewis-Clark State College women’s volleyball player to be named the Frontier Conference’s Player of the Week.
Graybeal has an outstanding week in helping the Warriors sweep both Montana State University-Northern last Thursday and the University of Great Falls last Saturday at the LCSC Activity Center. The two wins helped the ninth-ranked Warriors stretch their win streak to 15 matches and improve to 23-1 on the season and 13-0 in conference play.
Against MSU-Northern, Graybeal had 18 kills, which is a season-high for a Warrior in a three-game match. She also had two digs, five block assists and a service ace. In the win over Great Falls, she had 12 kills, five service aces, one block, and one block assist.
For the week, she averaged five kills, .17 assists, 1.5 digs, and an ace per game. She also had an amazing .609 attack percentage for the two matches.
Graybeal joins Deddiy Alaimaleata, Lauryn Herrick, and Kelli Tikker, all juniors, who have won the honor this season.
The Warriors close out the regular season this week by playing host to Whitman College on Wednesday at 6 p.m., and then Westminster on Friday at 7 p.m. to wrap up FC play. LCSC is trying to go a perfect 14-0 in conference play for the first time since the 1999 season when LCSC joined the league and went undefeated in FC play.
Friday’s match also has been designated as Senior Night. The Warriors will honor their four seniors, Jenika Bird-Jeppson, Demi Dlouhy, Kim Fong, and Katie Hinrichs.
LCSC also will play host to the conference tournament on Nov. 12-13. The single-elimination tournament features all eight teams involved in opening round play on Friday. The semifinals will be played Saturday with the championship match that evening. LCSC is guaranteed the No. 1 berth in the tournament and will play the No. 8 seed, Montana Western, at 6 p.m. on Friday in the opening round.
