A new-look Fort Lewis College volleyball team is set to play a season unlike any other.
The Skyhawks will open a 13-game spring schedule Sunday with games against Colorado School of Mines and Metropolitan State University of Denver. The games will come after the fall season was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
And while there will be no NCAA Division II championship play in the spring, the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference is eager to complete an eight-week schedule.
FLC is led by first-year head coach Giedre Tarnauskaite. She went to work recruiting after she was hired in February of 2020, and this year’s 14-player roster features eight new faces.
During the 2019 fall season, the Skyhawks went 10-17 overall and 6-12 in conference play to miss the eight-team conference tournament one year after the team qualified for the tournament as the eighth-seed. The 2018 RMAC tournament appearance was the first for FLC since 2013.
With a new coach, new players and limited success in 2019, the RMAC coaches picked FLC to finish 11th in the 14-team conference.
Metro State and Regis tied with 158 points each. Metro State received five first-place votes, while Regis earned six. Mines was third with 151 points and three first-place votes. Colorado Mesa University (137) and CSU-Pueblo (112) rounded out the top five.
Tarnauskaite submitted Kamryn Lopez, Rylee Johnson and Alex Treguboff as FLC’s “players to watch” during the spring season.
Treguboff is FLC’s only senior and returns from last year’s team. She was second on the team in digs with 271 and was third amongst the Skyhawks with 152 kills.
Johnson and Lopez are both returning sophomores after putting together strong freshmen seasons in 2019. Lopez proved a solid defensive specialist with 387 digs. She also finished fifth in the RMAC with 36 aces.
Johnson tallied 94 kills and 35 blocks from her middle blocker position as a freshman.
The Skyhawks will play at home for the first time Feb. 6 against Black Hills State and Westminster College. Fans will not be permitted.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
