by By Angela Roberts
LAKEWOOD, Colo. – The Fort Lewis College volleyball team fell in its Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference road opener on Friday night in straight sets to Colorado Christian University.
Fort Launch dropped to 4-7 overall and 1-2 in conference play while Colorado Christian improved to 5-6, 1-2 RMAC.
“This loss was tough. I don’t think that we showed up in a way that we know we can,” said head coach Giedre Tarnauskaite. “We have been pushing hard in practice, and our performance didn’t reflec tthat. We will have to quickly bounce back and focus on tomorrow’s match.”
The Cougars hit .319 for the match and held the Skyhawks to a .147 clip. A big piece of the puzzle for the match came from the block where Colorado Christian edged out Fort Lewis by a 9-3 margin. Senior JJ Curry led the team with 10 kills (.333), followed by junior Alexis Hobie who contributed eight. Junior Natalia Lambos recorded 22 assists to go along with two kills. Junior Sarah Wilkey led all players with 15 digs.
It was an evenly matched opening set the begin play with neither side leading by more than two points through 20 points. Fort Lewis pulled within one point on two occasions as the teams reached double figures, but Colorado Christian continued to lead in part to dialed in serve receive. The Skyhawks were able to tie things at 15-15 out of a timeout, earning the tying point on Hobie’s third kill of the set. Colorado Christian responded with a four-point surge to prompt another timeout at 19-15. Fort Lewis responded with a scoring run of its own, pulling within one courtesy of an ace from Lambos. The Cougars were on the winning end of a defining rally to reclaim a lead, and the momentum carried through the end of the set which ended in a 25-20 score.
Set two began similarly with the teams going blow for blow in a tightly contested battle. The Skyhawks took their first lead of the evening at 7-6 thanks to a kill from Hobie. From there, the Cougars erupted with a 5-0 scoring run to go ahead 12-7. Out of a break, Fort Lewis strung points together with a kill from Romano and block by Butler and Shea to tie it at 12-all. Shea put away a kill to reclaim the lead for Fort Lewis, and the teams went on to become tied at 14 and 15 before Colorado Christian managed to go ahead by a pair. Curry and Shea combined for three kills to make it a one-point set at 22-21. Despite the late push, the Cougars were nails down the stretch and closed it out with a 25-21 score.
Colorado Christian started the third set on a scoring run, forcing an early timeout, but Fort Lewis battled back to make it a 6-5 set after a kill by Shea. The score would eventually tie at eight apiece, but another scoring run had the home team ahead by three midway through the set. Serving pressure by Colorado Christian made things tough for Fort Lewis down the stretch in the third set, lending to a 22-18 advantage as senior Chay Swenson recorded a kill. The Cougars scored the match’s final two points on a kill and Skyhawks miscue to sweep the match.
