Not much stings worse than an opportunity missed.
The Fort Lewis College volleyball team is trying to take advantage of seven home matches in its last nine contests of the year as the Skyhawks try to grab a spot in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament at year’s end. And they were off to a good start – until late in the third game.
That’s when UC-Colorado Springs started to turn the tide.
The Mountain Lions rallied from 2-0 down to claim a 3-2 (20-25, 18-25, 25-20, 25-19, 15-12) win over FLC in a battle of two teams fighting for a postseason bid Thursday at Whalen Gym.
The loss allowed UCCS (10-10, 6-6 RMAC) to jump into the eighth and final postseason spot for the time being, leapfrogging the Skyhawks (5-14, 5-6 RMAC). And the loss also started FLC’s homestand off on the wrong foot with Metro State coming to town Friday and Regis on Saturday.
“We have to (move on). We came out, like I said, aggressive in the first two games, owning the court, and then there was just that lull,” FLC head coach Kelley Rifilato said. “We can’t have that against a Metro or a Regis.
“We needed this homestand I think as a push for the final weekends, be it over at Adams and over at Western State in kind of a hostile environment. We need to win this weekend. This weekend is really more important, I feel like, than the others.”
The Skyhawks started strong, using a quality service game to throw the Mountain Lions out of system with regularity, forcing players other than setter Grace Gordon, who had 38 assists, to have to make assists. And the FLC defense was on its toes, as well, compiling 39 of its 54 digs through three games.
But it was late in the third game when UCCS started to gain some traction. Trailing 19-18 in a set that saw the score tied seven times, the Mountain Lions rattled off seven of the next eight points to take some of the wind from FLC’s sails and win the game 25-20.
The serve, FLC’s strength in the first two games, faltered in the third as the Skyhawks committed four of their nine service errors, killing any momentum they had built as UCCS opened on a 12-1 run before holding on 25-19.
“We were serving at the same people, but I think some of their girls in the back row really stepped up to pass the ball on target,” Rifilato said.
The UCCS block got going, as well, giving the Skyhawks some trouble late. Ashley Wells, who had 13 kills and 16 digs for FLC, said the Mountain Lions weren’t doing anything out of the ordinary, just executing better. As a result, an FLC team that hit at a .314 clip in the second set mustered attack percentages of .122, .056 and .125 in the final three games.
“They put up a big block. They do. They’re a big team,” Wells said. “But it was nothing, I don’t think, anything new. It was just us. It was those unforced errors.”
Madi Bickle led the Skyhawks with 17 kills to go with 12 from Stephani Sonka, while Jenna Kinzer paced FLC with 20 digs.
Skyhawks’ setter Heather Danny had 49 assists for FLC in what Rifilato called one of the Skyhawks’ better offensive efforts of the season.
rowens@durangoherald.com
