Fort Lewis College’s Volleyball team had a long couple of nights on their home opening weekend as both of their matchups went to five sets.
Friday night the Skyhawks lost 3-2 against the Black Hills State University Yellow Jackets and Saturday night FLC won 3-2 against South Dakota School of Mines Hardrockers.
In Friday’s 3-2 loss to the Yellow Jackets, the Skyhawks won the first set 25-22 and looked to be in control of the match. However, BHSU came storming back and won the next two sets 26-24 and 25-19. BHSU took over all the momentum in those two sets, thoroughly dominating the Skyhawks and capitalizing off of the unforced errors that plagued FLC.
FLC came back in the fourth set and won it handily 25-18. Skyhawk Junior Laine Waters dominated in the fourth set. Six of her 12 kills came in the fourth and she had 10 attacking attempts. Waters was assisted by Skyhawk junior setter Kendra Swackenberg, who had 14 assists in the fourth set alone and led both teams with 43 assists throughout the contest.
Going into the fifth and decisive set, the Skyhawks had the momentum and were looking to put away BHSU, but that didn’t happen. BHSU came out on fire, taking a 4-0 lead and then eventually taking a 10-2 lead before the Skyhawks even knew what happened. BHSU ended up winning the set 15-7 and the match 3-2.
The win gave BHSU their first Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference victory of the season and improved their overall record to 4-5 while the loss dropped FLC to 5-4 overall and 0-1 in the RMAC.
In their second game of the weekend and their second attempt at getting in the RMAC win column, the Skyhawks pulled out the victory.
The Skyhawks beat the Hardrockers (1-9 overall, 0-2 in RMAC) Saturday night at home in five sets 3-2.
This game seemed as if it was going to go the same way that the BHSU game did the night before. The Skyhawks won the first set 25-19, dominating their competition, before they lost the next two sets in decisive fashion.
The Skyhawks were not going to let this one get away from them though. They won the fourth set 25-20 and edged out the Hardrockers in the fifth 15-12.
Sophomore middle blocker Bailey Longacre came to play in the second game of the weekend. She had 14 kills on 29 attempts and helped lead her team to the victory. Junior Maddie LeBlanc also had a good game having 14 kills on 28 attempts.
The Skyhawks (6-4, 1-1 in RMAC) will be on the road for their next four games over the next two weekends, playing at University of Colorado-Colorado Springs and MSU Denver next weekend, and at Western State and Colorado Mesa the following weekend.
Follow Matthew T. Roy on twitter at @Matt_roy81 for all your FLC sports updates, and stay up to date with FLC campus news by following @flcindependent and checking theindyonline.com.