LA MIRADA, Calif. – The Biola Summer Slam tournament has come to an end and the Lewis-Clark State College volleyball team will be happy to put it behind them. The No. 8-ranked Warriors fell twice on the final day of tournament play, first to No. 23 Cal State San Marcos in four sets 25-18, 25-19, 24-26, 25-20 and then to No. 5 Biola (Calif.) in three sets 25-11, 25-10, 25-10.
(Match 1 Box Score) (Match 2 Box Score)
LCSC, now 3-5, entered the tournament on a high note having started the year 3-1 and having defeated No. 10 Vanguard in its most recent game, but the team will now look to regroup after going 0-4 on the road trip.
San Marcos, now 6-2, didn’t blow the Warriors out by any stretch, but it did control the pace most of the way. The Cougars led .206 to .178 in hitting percentage, 11-7 in blocks, and 9-4 in service aces.
With 28 ties and 13 lead changes throughout the match, the Warriors did a good amount of battling, especially in the third set when they overcame an 18-7 deficit with an 11-1 run and end up winning the set.
LCSC carried the momentum from the third-set victory and jumped out to a 14-10 lead in the fourth. San Marcos responded though with two quick service aces by Taylor Degraaf and ended up cruising down the stretch to get the win.
San Marcos’ Lindsey Mitchell led with 19 kills and Degraaf added 15. Keisha Luebbert-Kennedy and Willow Markowitz led the Warriors with 13 and 12 kills, respectively. Markowitz hit a match-high .632.
Cougars Brittany Thompson and Erin Talafus led with five blocks apiece, while setter Alyssa Foster had a match-high 45 assists. Warrior setter Nevena Dragovic had 36 assists to go with three service aces.
Against Biola, in what the NAIA deemed as the nation’s match of the week, the Warriors seemed unable to gain any kind of traction at all. The Eagles’ serve-receive proved to be too crisp and their attack too powerful.
The tournament host, now 6-1 on the year, hit .410 overall and enjoyed a 10-1 lead in blocks and a 10-2 advantage in aces.
Chelsee Arnitz and Christine Douglas led with 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Arnitz also had seven blocks, while Charley Parker led with four service aces.
Freshman Traneisha Doyle, who made her season debut earlier in the day against San Marcos, was one of the few bright spots for the Warriors. She led the team with eight kills and a .316 hitting clip.
The Warriors will take next week off as they settle into the first week of school at Lewis-Clark State. The team’s next contest will be an inner-squad scrimmage, which is open to the public, on Sept. 1 at 2 p.m. at the Activity Center. This will serve as a warm-up for the Warriors’ home and Frontier Conference opening match against Great Falls on Sept. 7.
