The Fort Lewis College volleyball team ran into a road block at a home match Saturday at Whalen Gymnasium in the form of the Metro State, as the Road Runners took the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference matchup in straight sets, 25-18, 26-24 and 25-18.
The Skyhawks (3-9, 0-4 RMAC) didn’t help themselves, hitting six percent on attacks and 48 percent on their sideouts. Every time the Skyhawks got into a rhythm, the Road Runners (5-9, 3-2 RMAC) halted the momentum and kept the Skyhawks at an arm’s reach all day.
“We need to work on serving and passing; our serving over the course of the weekend has been super tough,” said Skyhawks head coach Kelley Rifiliato. “We take people out of system. I felt like our setters played really well. We made (the Road Runners) move, so we’re going to continue to pass well. We have to find some offense and some consistent offense that can put the ball on the floor.”
Rifilato added Metro State is a great defensive team, which caused long rallies.
The first set went back and forth early, but Metro State gained control, and it quickly ended in the Road Runners’ favor. Fort Lewis was only able to tie the first set twice.
In the second set, Fort Lewis hung around long enough to tie it at 24 when senior Shelby Lehman scored a cross-court kill. Even though Metro State won the set, Lehman’s senior leadership was noticeable.
“Their outside would switch it up and weren’t predictable,” Lehman said.
Lehman – who finished the night with five kills – tried her best to create energy. “Sometimes you have to fabricate the energy and eventually you start getting it. We can play really good and I don’t think the scores of the games reflect that, which might be an advantage in future games.”
With such a young team – Fort Lewis has eight freshmen who play regularly – the Skyhawks will have their fair share of growing pains. If the Skyhawks keep playing the way they have been, the wins are right around the corner, Rifilato said.
“We are young, we are inexperienced,” Rifilato said. “When one player makes an error, and then another and then another, all of a sudden it becomes this string of errors, and that’s something that we’ve been talking about a lot. We have to just curtail errors and find a way to put the ball to the floor. Our focus, offensively, is to put the ball to the floor.”
Down 8-3 in the third set, Rifilato called a series of time outs to regroup her team. Any hopes of a comeback never came, but Rifilato’s efforts to spark her team were warranted. Down 19-11, the Skyhawks didn’t give up and went on a 6-3 run.
“I was trying to find some sort of spark,” Rifilato said of all the time outs. “We had to take care of the ball and we didn’t. I think we did a good job adjusting people just to create a spark and when we did that some of the reserves came in and did a great job giving us energy and stability in the back row to give a different look. “
Junior Ally Dell’Amico led the defensive effort with a match high 15 digs. Defensively at the net, sophomore Hannah Hargrove added two solo blocks and assisted on two others. She also added four kills.
Freshman Matisse Monty tallied a team-high seven kills, while freshman Maddie LeBlanc added six. Freshman Kendra Swackenberg assisted on 12 kills, and junior Delaney Scanlan added 10.
Vasati Fiatoa of Metro State led both teams with nine kills on 44 percent hitting.
The Skyhawks will remain home next weekend for homecoming, as they will play host to Colorado School of Mines at 7 p.m. Friday and Colorado Christian University at 5 p.m. Saturday.
jmentzer@durangoherald.com
