It was not the way that the Fort Lewis College volleyball team envisioned ending its home tournament on Saturday afternoon inside Whalen Gymnasium, as the Skyhawks fell in four sets to West Texas A&M in the final match of the Skyhawks Volleyball Classic.
The Lady Buffs (6-1) controlled the match from the opening point and defeated the Skyhawks 25-9, 25-17, 25-27 and 25-6.
Lindsey Smith led West Texas A&M with 18 kills, while Selena Batiste had 12 and Samantha Jordan had eight.
FLC was paced by Bailey Longacre, who finished with seven kills, while Ohiyah Shirley had six. Joviana Romero had 16 digs in the match.
“It wasn’t our night at all,” said FLC head coach Tricia Melfy. “It’s unacceptable; We had 25 hitting errors, and you don’t belong here if you can’t hit the ball on the court. Either step up, or sit on the bench. If you can’t play a little bit more consistently ... we were in the trench, it was that bad.”
The Skyhawks (4-5) had a hitting percentage of just 0.62 percent.
With conference play beginning next Friday, Melfy said her team will have their work cut out for them.
“We wanted nine preseason matches for a reason to get ready to go, but when you see things like this, you kind of wonder ‘What girls can I put on the court?’” Melfy said. “They show great things, but when you can be that bad, it’s hard to figure out what the lineup is going to look like. We’re going to work hard, put a bit more accountability on them and find the top six or seven girls to go out there and actually put together some good volleyball.”
The Skyhawks will open Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play at 7 p.m. Friday at Metropolitan State University.
Women’s soccer
Women’s soccerThe Fort Lewis College women’s soccer team recorded plenty of shots against Eastern New Mexico on Saturday in Portales, but were blanked and lost 1-0 to the Greyhounds.
The Skyhawks (1-1) outshot the Greyhounds 14-5, including 9-0 in the second half, but were unable to find the back of the net.
“I think it was a really, really hard fought game, but I think we had a hard time staying composed,” said FLC head coach Damian Clarke. “We didn’t relax and play when we had opportunities to. ... It’s a bit of a process of us growing into ourselves and believing that we are good enough team to make sure we come away with wins.”
The Greyhounds (3-0) scored the game’s only goal in the 25th minute, after Kinsie Mitchell found Desiree Morgas, who put it past FLC goalkeeper Britt Blomso.
FLC will begin conference play with a trip to Black Hills State University (0-4) at 5 p.m. Friday in Spearfish, South Dakota.
Cross-CountryThe Fort Lewis College cross-country teams had good showings at the University of California Riverside Invitational on Saturday in Riverside, California, as the men’s cross-country team finished in 13th, while the women took 10th.
On the men’s side, Elvis Chelak was the highest finisher for the Skyhawks, as he took 60th with a time of 25 minutes, 25.92 seconds. Freshman Henry Barth was second in 25:49.54 for 74th, while Steven Nez was 100th and crossed the finish line in 26:13.72.
“It was good but it wasn’t great,” said FLC head coach Joshua Coon. “It’s nice to see some of those Division I teams and be in the mix, but our front guys didn’t run terribly smart. We’ll have some things to work on to compete in the RMAC and the South-Central Region. The good thing is that we’re a young squad, so we can rebound. It was an OK day, and we’ve got positive momentum heading.”
On the women’s side, Krista Benze paced FLC with a five-kilometer time of 19:33.54, which was 62nd overall. Makiah Salzano was 73rd in 19:47.34 and sophomore Jessica Ramirez took 83rd and finished in 19:56.89.
“Today went well and it was a really stacked field,” said FLC head women’s coach Brett Sublett. “The women’s team works really well together. We don’t have any superstars, but we’ve got a good pack time and have a lot of interchangeable parts. Moving forward, we’ve got three weeks to prepare for the next part of the season, so I’m excited to see what we can do.”
bploen@durangoherald.com
