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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Rylee Johnson 10.26
Maureen Pasley, FLC Athletics
FLC freshman Rylee Johnson had eight kills in Saturday's 3-2 loss to Black Hills State (File photo).
2
Ft. Lewis 19FLCVB 9-12
3
Winner Black Hills State BHVB 9-11
Ft. Lewis 19FLCVB
9-12
2
Final
3
Black Hills State BHVB
9-11
Winner
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 4 5 F
Ft. Lewis 19FLCVB 14 23 25 25 10 (2)
Black Hills State BHVB 25 25 20 20 15 (3)

Game Recap: Women's Volleyball | | David Wilson, Assistant AD-Communications

Skyhawks edged by Yellow Jackets in five sets, finish weekend road trip at 1-1

SPEARFISH, South Dakota — As they had done less than 24 hours prior, the Fort Lewis College volleyball team battled back from an early deficit to gives themselves a chance for a RMAC road win.

On Friday night, the Skyhawks succeeded as they rallied for a five-set victory over South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Unfortunately, after digging out of a 2-0 hole, FLC was unable to duplicate the magic Saturday evening, falling in five sets (14-25, 23-25, 25-20, 25-20 and 10-15) to Black Hills State University. 

Fort Lewis (9-13 overall, 5-8 RMAC) held a 7-6 lead nearing the midway point of the fifth set before Black Hills State (10-11 overall, 8-5 RMAC) surged ahead with a 5-1 run to take the lead back for good at 11-8 and ending the Skyhawks spotless 6-0 record in five-set matches entering Saturday evening.

"We had great effort, we just kind of ran out of steam and didn't get the big points we needed in that fifth set," said Fort Lewis head coach, Tricia Melfy. "There was just an unfortunate 4-5 point stretch right there that. Everything was just a little bit off at that point. Our block was a little bit late and our passes were just a little bit off, meaning our swings had to be safe."

Defensively, Fort Lewis produced another solid performance following its 101-kill effort Friday evening, finishing with 89 digs and winning the blocking battle, 13-9.

True freshman Alexa Alameddin, fresh off 11 digs in Friday's victory, continued to impress on the road trip as she paced all Skyhawks with a career-high 23 digs on Saturday. Junior outside hitter Alexa Treguboff recorded her second career game with 20 digs or more, as well.

Freshman setter Payton Harmann and freshman libero Kamryn Lopez followed with 16 digs and 14 digs, respectively, to round out the four FLC players in double-figures.
Converting those digs into offense was the big difference as Black Hills State converted 100 digs into 71 kills, while FLC finished with an even 50 kills.

"We were just not putting the ball down, especially early in the match, and dug ourselves into that hug hole. We had seven kills and nine errors in that first set," Melfy said. "We dug ourselves in that emotional and mental hole, as well, because we weren't effective offensively. We were a little more solid in those third and fourth sets, but we just didn't put enough balls down."

Leading the way for the Skyhawks was senior middle blocker Bailey Longacre with 12 kills, while sophomore middle blocker Tye Wedhorn and sophomore outside hitter Jacalyn Sharko each provided nine kills, and freshman middle blocker Rylee Johnson chipped in eight kills.

For Sharko, who filled in the final four sets for an injured Ohiyah Shirley, was a bright spot for the Skyhawks as her nine kills off the bench were her most since she powered down 10 kills in a win over Southeastern Oklahoma State University back on Sept. 6.

"Of all 17 players, Jacalyn hits the heaviest ball. That kid can put a ball on the ground. She just hadn't been consistent," Melfy said of Sharko. "Hopefully tonight was good for her. Ohiyah had a little tweak and had to come out. Jacalyn got the call and she was a nice spark for us. That's the Jacalyn we love and hopefully it gives her some confidence rolling into our next match."

Fort Lewis will continue its current four-match road swing next weekend with crucial matchups against Colorado Mesa University (7 p.m. Friday) and Western Colorado University (3 p.m. Saturday).

The Skyhawks currently sit two games out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the RMAC standings with four matches remaining in the regular season.

"We've shown the ability to dig ourselves out of a hole and that's what we need to carry with us. We do have the fight and grit and hopefully we can start off matches with the mentality grit we've been finishing them with," Melfy said. "We'll design our practices that way so we're ready to go for points 1-10 and not turning it on a set and a half in. We've got to go get a win we're not suppose to get right now to make up for the fact we really needed this win. To get into the tournament, we're going to have to beat someone no one else thinks we can beat and that's kind of the plan. We have to get off to good starts in our matches going forward."
 
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