Box Score

GOODWELL, Okla. — In the fickle sport of volleyball, momentum swings constantly. This morning, it was Fort Hays State who had “Big Mo” at the end, as the Tigers (3-0 overall) handed Fort Lewis (2-1) its first loss of the season, 25-15, 28-26, 15-25, 19-25, 15-7 in the second day of action at the Oklahoma Panhandle State University Aggies Challenge in Williams Fieldhouse this morning.
 
“The difficult part about our sport is the swing of momentum,” said ninth-year FLC head coach Shelly Aaland. “Unfortunately, they just got the last swing of it.”
 
The Tigers — former Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rivals of Fort Lewis until they bolted to the Mid-America Athletic Association in 2006 — jumped out early by dominating the first set, 25-15.
 
The Skyhawks showed signs of life in the second, but could never get over the hump in the end. Fort Lewis staved off four straight set points before ultimately falling in overtime, 28-26.
 
Then momentum swung Fort Lewis' way.
 
“To come back and not lay down for set three was a nod to our resolve,” said Aaland, whose team turned to one of its biggest strengths — serving — to counter.
 
“Their offense is very different, but we did a great job adjusting to it for the most part and took them out of their game with our aggressive serving,” said the Skyhawk skipper. “Hannah (Starbuck) started serving and just set the tone for set three. They run a faster offense, but they couldn't run it when our serve forced them out of it.”
 
Starbuck and defensive specialist Lindley Gallegos each notched three aces in the match, while libero Jenna Kinzer added a pair. As a team, the Skyhawks out-aced the Tigers 9-7.
 
Thanks largely to their strong service, Fort Lewis took sets three and four, 25-15 and 25-19 to force the decisive fifth set.
 
But Big Mo apparently switched sides at the captain's meeting prior to the fifth set. The Tigers hit the first point out of bounds, but FLC's Ashley Wells was called in the net. An attack error made it 2-0; consecutive aces by FHSU setter Kayla Zoglman flanked a Skyhawk timeout and made it 4-0. Kills by Kylee Hoagland and Taylor Mares stretched the lead to 6-0 before FLC's Stephani Sonka momentarily stopped the bleeding, but the Skyhawks would never trim the deficit to fewer than five points.
 
Aaland thought the back-and-forth match taught her teams important lessons that yesterday's three-set cakewalk victories didn't: namely, how to keep the momentum on your side.
 
“It was a really good battle with a very skilled team,” she said. “It is good experience for us to learn how to manage the match. We let them back into set four at the end. Even though (Fort Hays State) lost set four, they came into set five with more momentum than we did.
 
“The girls know what they are working toward,” she said of her side. “We have our goal in mind. We just have to work a little more at being on the winning side and managing momentum.”
 
Fort Hays State out-killed Fort Lewis 62-42 and out-blocked the Skyhawks 9-6. Each team notched 69 digs. FHSU also more efficient in their attacking, hitting .200 to FLC's .113.
 
The Tigers had several players put up big numbers. Jenna Ulrich hit a .538 with 15 kills and seven blocks. Hoagland added 14 kills, while Sara Hewson notched a double-double with 12 kills and 11 digs. Zoglman had 43 assists and a trio of aces.
 
Wells paced FLC with 13 kills, 10 digs, and 3 blocks. Kinzer led the way defensively with 25 digs. Ciara Krening had 37 assists.
 
Fort Lewis will try to rebound in less than an hour when they face RMAC rival Colorado Christian in a nonconference game at noon at the Noble Center, OPSU's auxiliary facility. There will be no live stats, video, or audio for this afternoon's match.
 
Colorado Christian owns a 16-11 lead in the all-time series with Fort Lewis, including a win in last year's only meeting that broke FLC's eight-game winning streak over CCU.