by DURANGO, Colorado — The Fort Lewis College volleyball team picked up its first RMAC win of the season in dramatic fashion, bouncing back from a tough first set to edge out Westminster College in five sets (24-26, 25-18, 25-16, 23-25 and 15-8) inside Whalen Gymnasium to begin its Homecoming Weekend back-to-back.
Fort Lewis (4-9 overall, 1-4 RMAC) padded the stat sheet, posting a season-high in kills with 66, while adding 85 digs and 10 total blocks.
“We were so happy about getting that first RMAC win out of the way. Even if you have to win ugly, we had to weather our own storm a little bit and Westminster came to play, we had to find a way to get a win (Friday),” said Fort Lewis head coach, Tricia Melfy.
The Skyhawks were a bit sluggish in the onset, dropping a tight first set 26-24. Westminster (3-9 overall, 0-5 RMAC) tallied five of its 10 aces on the night in the first set as FLC initially struggled with its serve receive.
“Sometimes on serve receive, the girls are thinking about the next thing they have to do instead of focusing on passing first,” Melfy said. “We have to stay focused because the most important skill out there is passing. You can’t do anything without getting the ball up in the air. We got off to a slow start with that, but were able to address it.”
The Skyhawks responded by rattling off set wins of 25-18 and 25-16. And after a small speed bump in Set Four, a 25-23 loss that evened the match at 2-2, FLC slammed the door with a convincing 15-8 win in the fifth set to solidify the 3-2 victory.
Senior middle blocker Bailey Longacre and senior outside hitter Ohiyah Shirley (Navajo) punctuated a big night for the Skyhawks’ offense as Longacre matched her career-high with 18 kills, while Shirley followed with a season-high 17 kills; just two shy of her career-high of 19 set back on August 31, 2018 against Westminster.
Freshman middle blocker Rylee Johnson cracked double-digit kills for the first time in her young career on Friday, as well, finishing with 10 kills, and sophomore middle blocker Tye Wedhorn added eight kills to help pace the Skyhawks.
“We definitely ran our offense tonight and I was so proud of them,” Melfy said. “Ohiyah blossomed tonight and sometimes that happens because we can get to our middles like Bailey, Tye and Rylee. When we can run that quicker offense because our passing is better, than our pin hitters can have a little more success and Ohiyah took advantage of that tonight.”
Another big piece to the offense’s success on Friday was freshman setter Payton Harmann as the Peoria, Arizona native obliterated her previous career-high in assists with 54 against the Griffins. She also added six kills and 16 digs in the victory.
“In my opinion, Payton doesn’t play like a freshman because she has so much experience. But she is a freshman and I’m proud of how much she’s grown already,” Melfy said. “She set a very accurate ball (Friday), she made good decisions and she played some defense. Setters sometimes forget about that, but with 16 digs, she certainly played some defense.”
Sophomore outside hitter Jacalyn Sharko, a fellow Arizona native, shined in her first extended action of the season, as well. Sharko powered down five kills and was one of five Skyhawks to finish with double-figures in digs with (14). Freshman libero Kamryn Lopez led the back row with a team-high 18 digs.
“The kid is a great volleyball player. I just think she had been in her own head a little bit,” Melfy said of Sharko. “She played relaxed and got the call tonight when we needed somebody and answered. She passed well, she played great defense and had a few kills for us. She was a great spark.”
Up next for Fort Lewis will be a 5 p.m. matchup on Saturday against Dixie State University (8-5 overall, 3-2 RMAC) that is coming to Durango on a mini two-game losing streak, with losses against Colorado Mesa and Adams State in succession.
