Westminster (UT) WC-UT 5-16,3-10 RMAC

Fort Lewis FLC 8-11,6-7 RMAC

Westminster (UT) WC-UT

5-16,3-10 RMAC

Final

Oct. 21, 2022

Fort Lewis FLC

8-11,6-7 RMAC

Set Scores
Team	1	2	3	F
Westminster (UT) WC-UT	23	15	19	(0)
Fort Lewis FLC	25	25	25	(3)

Summary
Box Score

JoJo Lutz, Fort Lewis Athletic Communications

Ella Butler and Lauren Shea combined for five blocks against Westminster College

Game Recap: Women's Volleyball | 10/21/2022 8:32:00 PM | Angela Roberts, Assistant AD - Communications

Volleyball earns sweep of Westminster College to kick off homecoming weekend

DURANGO, Colo. – Behind a highlight outing from sophomore Alexis Hobie, the Fort Lewis College volleyball team opened Homecoming weekend with a decisive sweep of Westminster College on Friday evening. Fort Lewis improves to 8-11 overall and 6-7 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference while Westminster dips to 5-16, 3-10 RMAC.

Hobie, who is no stranger to the feat, charted a double-double with a match-high 17 kills and 15 digs while hitting .400 on the pin. She was joined by junior Lauren Shea who put away 11 kills on 22 swings (.318) to go along with seven digs. Sophomore Natalia Lambos orchestrated an efficient offense with 34 assists (11.33/set) and three kills. Senior Kamryn Lopez was stout on defense, serve receive, and coverage from start to finish and ended the match with nine digs.

"Tonight, the team showed the power of our offense. We attacked with confidence, mixed in well-timed shots, and we were unstoppable," said head coach Giedre Tarnauskaite. "Natalia (Lambos) did an amazing job at providing opportunities for our hitters, and the hitters took full advantage of them. The offensive success started with our first contact, and I think that our serve receive was the best we have seen this season."

The Skyhawks were treated to a .277 hitting percentage—the second-best mark of the season and best since an August 26^th sweep over Western New Mexico where the team hit .333. Fort Lewis' defense limited the Griffins to a .118 efficiency, and service pressure was the culprit. Led by Shea and Lopez who had two apiece, the Skyhawks racked up six service aces and went after the backcourt to keep Westminster out of system for much of the match.

Set One (25-23)
Fort Lewis looked ready to give the homecoming crowd a good show from the jump, exploding to a 7-2 lead thanks to miscues from the opposition. The teams traded points from there, but the Skyhawks managed to double the lead at 14-7 with a kill and aces off the hand of Shea. Just when it looked as though the set was out of reach, Westminster rallied with a quartet of kills to knot it at 17-17. Fort Lewis found a quick side out, but momentum propelled the Griffins ahead 21-19. The Skyhawks regrouped and ended the set on a 4-1 scoring run to claim the opening set.

Set Two (25-15)
The Griffins kept it close in the early points of set two but attacking errors and a crafty kill from senior Rylee Johnson pushed the Skyhawks up 7-3. The nail in the coffin for Westminster came at the hands of their inability to stop the scoring run through the middle portion of the set. First, a three-point burst put Fort Lewis ahead 17-10. The Griffins had a side-out kill, but the home team responded with a 4-0 run to extend the lead to 21-11. Points went back and forth as the set neared its end, but a cross-court kill from Shea and a service ace by freshman Ella Butler ended it in a 25-15 score.

Set Three (25-19)
Westminster saw a 3-3 tie in what would go down as the final set, but the Skyhawks went ahead 7-3 thanks to an ace and setter dump by Lambos. The Griffins found a quick spark, dropping in a pair of kills on the pin to trail by one, but it would be another key scoring run from the blue and gold to add insurance. The insurance proved vital moments later when a pair of attacking errors on the Skyhawks allowed for a 10-10 tie game. The set saw five additional tied scores through the midway point, but that nail-biting moment quickly dissolved thanks to a 4-0 push to make it 20-16. Lambos continued to spread the offense masterfully in the final few points, dishing out kills on the outside, middle, and right side to end the set in a 25-19 final.

"This momentum is what we wanted going into our next match, and we will be ready to compete in front of our home crowd again," ended Tarnauskaite.

Up Next
Fort Lewis (7-11, 5-7 RMAC) will face its sixth nationally ranked foe of the season tomorrow night with a 6:00 p.m. first serve against No. 20 Colorado Mesa University. The teams faced off on September 30 in Grand Junction where the Skyhawks fell in straight sets.

The Mavericks are enjoying a seven-match winning streak which brings their overall record to 15-4 on the year. The team's last loss came at the hands of No. 2 MSU Denver in mid-September.

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