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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Treguboff and Longacre block
Peyton Rutkowski
Senior Bailey Longacre (left) and junior Alexa Treguboff (right) go up for a block during Friday's match against Colorado School of Mines.
3
Winner Colo. Sch. of Mines CSM 8-2
0
Fort Lewis FLC 4-7
Winner
Colo. Sch. of Mines CSM
8-2
3
Final
0
Fort Lewis FLC
4-7
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 F
Colo. Sch. of Mines CSM 25 25 25 (3)
Fort Lewis FLC 18 16 20 (0)

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

Skyhawks fall at home to No. 25 ranked Colorado School of Minies

DURANGO, Colorado — The Fort Lewis College volleyball team opened a home back-to-back Friday evening against No. 25 ranked Colorado School of Mines, falling 25-18, 25-16 and 25-20 inside Whalen Gymnasium.

Fort Lewis (4-8 overall, 0-3 RMAC) was able to stay tight with the visiting Orediggers (9-2 overall, 2-1 RMAC) thanks to a steady defensive performance as the team finished with 43 digs and limited the powerful CSM offense to 27 kills through the first two sets.

The Skyhawks' defensive effort was also aided by six total blocks on the night, led by four players in sophomore Tye Wedhorn, freshman setter Payton Harmann, freshman middle blocker Rylee Johnson and senior Bailey Longacre with two block assists apiece.

"I really liked the effort of the team. I know we wanted a different outcome, but we never quit, we played hard, made some adjustments and I thought our blocking looked better," said Fort Lewis head coach, Tricia Melfy. "Defensively, we looked a little better. But offensively, we weren't really scoring the way we need to score. Too many mistakes there. But it's something to build on."

Fort Lewis finished the evening with 26 kills and 19 attack errors on 106 total swings, limiting its ability to string points together and make a run at the nationally ranked Orediggers.

The Skyhawks started the evening by vaulting out to a 5-0 lead in the first set before Colorado School of Mines answered with a 6-1 run to tie the set at 6-6.

The two teams were tied again at 11-11 before the Orediggers went on a 7-1 run to open a cushion at 18-12 en route to a 25-18 win in Set One.

Colorado School of Mines led wire-to-wire in the 25-16 win in Set Two before hanging on for a 25-20 win in Set Three, aided by 18 kills in the set, to fend off the Skyhawks after they had climbed within two points late at 20-18 and 22-20.
While the Skyhawks were pleased with the 43 digs, ball control off those digs contributed to Friday's struggles in finding a rhythm, offensively.

"We dug some balls and had some opportunities, but the digs weren't maybe something we could tee-off of in the middle," Melfy said. "The digs were up and weren't great digs, so we weren't, defensively, generating any offense off of them. I like that we start with getting the ball up. If we get the ball, and start doing that more on the regular, then I think we'll have a chance to score off those digs."

Freshman libero led all Skyhawks with 10 digs, followed by junior Alexa Tregubogg and Harmann with eight digs, and freshman defensive specialist Joviana Romero with seven digs off the bench.

Treguboff and Harmann led the way, offensively, for Fort Lewis as Treguboff posted a team-high seven kills and Harmann added five kills and 20 assists from the setter position.

Johnson, who made her first collegiate start on Friday, and junior middle blocker Courtney Laliberte each had solid contributions in expanded roles.

Laliberte manned the middle when Wedhorn was sidelined due to injury in the third set, finishing with three kills on five swings (.600 hitting percentage), while Johnson added three kills to go with her two block assists.

"I thought they both went in and executed well," Melfy said of Laliberte and Johnson. "The biggest thing with Rylee was going in and getting more blocks and I thought she did that (Friday). Courtney came in and was super active in the middle. And when Tye had to go out, I thought she really brought a spark."

Fort Lewis will look to build off Friday's positives when it continues the second night of its RMAC back-to-back at 5 p.m. Saturday against the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

The Mountain Lions come to Durango with a 4-7 overall record and 2-1 mark inside the RMAC.

"We need to take the same mentality and energy into (Saturday's) match, cut down on a few errors and make a couple adjustments," Melfy said. "We know what we're looking for in UCCS. We did some scouting on them and we'll know what adjustments to make with them tomorrow. But I think if we at least come out with the same energy, we put up a nice block like we did tonight, that's really going to help us. We just have to make a few adjustments, offensively."
 
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