STERLING, CO – Laramie County Community College volleyball stumbled in their opening matches at the Sheila Worley Invitational hosted by Northeastern Junior College on Friday morning, dropping a pair to #4 Barton Community College and Dodge City Community College to fall to 4-10 on the season.

LCCC 0 #4 Barton 3 – 21-25, 18-25, 23-25

The Golden Eagles found an early hole to Barton in the opening set, falling behind 10-4 on a run that was keyed by several hitting errors by LCCC. They were able to right the ship though and kept the Bulldogs within striking distance.

That never developed into a run for LCCC though and they dropped the opening set 25-21.

Set two was wider by the final scoring margin but was played more tightly in many ways. There was no long run for Barton to use to pull ahead, but he did nibble away at the Golden Eagles until the lead had grown to as much as nine at 23-14. Barton never won more than three points in a row and LCCC did close the gap to just seven by the end of the game.

Down 2-0, LCCC didn't like the start to the third set after they fell behind 6-1. They won nine of the next 15 points to climb back to within three and would chew that deficit up all the way to 22-21 as they looked to force a fourth set.

The teams traded points the rest of the way through the third though and LCCC dropped it 25-23.

Lea Susoy had the best match attacking wise finishing with nine kills, along with Nina Jasiecka who added nine of her own. Addison Schreurs finished with 27 assists and Savannah Cummings continued her strong season serving with four aces.

Blocking was not strong for LCCC in the match, only collecting three total blocks as a team, and the team only hit .094 in the match.

LCCC 1 Dodge City 3 – 18-25, 11-25, 25-23, 20-25

Round two of the day pitted LCCC against the Conquistadors of Dodge City and set one was another slow start for the Golden Eagles. The Conquistadors pushed ahead to an eight-point lead at 14-6 and that would be more than enough to push through the remainder of the set.

LCCC did make a surge down 19-9 to win five of the next six points, but it didn't slow down Dodge City on the way to a 25-18 win.

Set two was if anything more difficult on the Golden Eagles. Dodge City doubled up LCCC in the first 15 points for a 10-5 lead and there wasn't much else said on the way to a 25-11 set win and a convincing 2-0 lead for Dodge City.

The Golden Eagles were primed for a surprise though, and in the early points of the third set were able to push ahead 9-4 and force the Conquistadors into a timeout.

Dodge City was able to fight their way back to as close as 13-11 to stabilize momentum, and forced the set to ties at 17, 19, 21, 22, and 23 but in the final points, LCCC found a different gear and were able to overcome DCCC to force the fourth set with the 25-23 win.

It seemed like the Golden Eagles would keep the momentum in the early part of the fourth set. LCCC took the opening lead 3-0 but that would quickly turn into a back and forth set with neither team leading by more than a couple on the way to a tie at 16 all.

Dodge City was able to break away this time with a 3-0 run of their own for some breathing room. LCCC did close it to 22-21 but DCCC finished the set with the final three points going their way for the 25-21 win.

Elysiana Fonseca finished with a team high 10 kills in the match where LCCC showed off their depth. Ten Golden Eagles finished with kills on the way to 37 as a team. Schreurs had 23 assists with Nayomi Toilolo adding six.

Serving and blocking were both struggles for the Golden Eagles again with only three aces and three total blocks for the team.

LCCC returns to action to close out the Sheila Worley Invitational when they face off against #15 New Mexico Junior College and #10 Indian Hills Community College on Saturday. The matches are at 9:30 am and 5:00 pm. Full details can be found at www.golccc.com.