Skyhawks volleyball head coach Giedre Tarnauskaite has often talked about the difficulty of beating a team twice. After defeating Adams State on the road on Oct. 4, FLC ran into that challenge on Tuesday night against the Grizzlies. The Skyhawks weren’t up to the challenge and lost to Adams State 3-1.
FLC fell to 7-12 overall and 3-6 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference with the 18-25, 23-25, 25-23, 14-25 loss on Nike N7 night. The Nike N7 program aims to promote sport and physical activity in Native American communities. Adams State improved to 6-14 overall and 3-6 in RMAC play with the win.
“I knew it was going to be a battle and I was hoping for some home court advantage,” Tarnauskaite said. “It was a really special evening for the N7. I'm very grateful for the turnout that we had, it was a beautiful celebration that we had. So of course, you want the stars to align for everything to go great. We didn't perform like we needed to. So it is unfortunate, but we'll try to continue making some adjustments.”
Sophomore outside hitter Jordan DeJesus led the Skyhawks with 12 kills despite only playing two sets. Senior Alexis Hobie had 10 kills and junior Ella Butler had nine. Senior setter Natalia Lambos had 37 assists.
Adams State was led by Cindy Garcia’s 16 kills and Anna Huggins’ 14 kills.
FLC got off to an 8-5 lead thanks to some good play around the net and some hitting errors by Adams State.
An ace by Nora Conway gave Adams State a 15-13 lead. Tarnauskaite called a timeout after a hitting error by the Skyhawks gave the Grizzlies a 16-13 lead.
The Grizzlies had some success on the right side of the floor. Garcia showed off her hops with a few powerful kills as Adams State led 19-14. Tarnuaskaite called another timeout after a hitting error by Hobie led to a 21-15 deficit. The Grizzlies took the first set 25-18.
“We had our ups and downs, but our downs got the best of us today. We started decent but we sometimes need an upswing and we just never had the upswing. Even in the set we won, we made a big lead and then we lost it. We've reached a point in our season where we're playing teams that you cannot even give an inch to them because they will take advantage of it. That's what happened for us tonight.”
Hadleigh Richardson had back-to-back kills for the Grizzlies to take their first lead of the second set at 7-6. She had great length and height which allowed her to hit some powerful spikes. A few hitting errors by the Skyhawks from the net gave Adams State an 11-8 lead and Tarnauskaite called timeout shortly after.
Hobie had a quality second set. She showed off her power with a spike and her touch with a soft tip shot to give FLC a 17-16 lead.
“She's tall and she has a very powerful arm,” Tarnauskaite said about Hobie. “Playing in front of our home crowd, she feeds off the energy of the crowd. She wants to put on a good show and she gave us some of that tonight.”
But Adams State responded with some great serving and some good touch shots for a 21-18 lead.
Two kills by Butler gave FLC a chance down 24-23. A block on a Hobie hit ended the set with Adams State taking the second set 25-23.
A DeJesus kill and an ace by Nunez helped the Skyhawks get off to a 6-2 start in the third set.
Adams State scored five consecutive points after the Grizzlies challenged an earlier point by FLC which seemed to change the momentum.
DeJesus came in again and on her second hit scored her second kill for a 11-9 lead for FLC. This seemed to energize FLC. Adams State had some hitting errors and trailed 14-10.
“Jordan is good at bringing energy, being relentless and swinging,” Tarnauskaite said about DeJesus. “I wanted to see if she would connect. She has struggled in the past with her connection. I was really happy to see that she changed up some things; she really used her range in swinging and it put a lot of stress on Adams State. I'm glad that she performed, and I'm glad that she went in and was ready to go.”
Once again, DeJesus scored twice for a 16-12 Skyhawks lead. Hitting errors then cut the FLC lead to 16-15.
Hobie stopped the bleeding with a beautiful touch shot into the corner. Lambos had a nice dump shot for an 18-17 lead.
Adams State took its first lead of the set. Huggins was crushing the ball from the right side and FLC couldn’t block it.
Butler had back-to-back blocks at the net for a 22-21 lead. A hitting error gave FLC a 24-23 lead. A Hobie block gave the Skyhawks a 25-23 set win.
Adams State surged to a 4-0 lead in the fourth set thanks to some good play on its left side. The Grizzlies continued to attack the Skyhaws’ right side while DeJesus had a few nice kills. FLC then couldn’t block Adams State at the net and trailed 11-5.
The Grizzlies continued their strong play around the net and the Skyhawks shot themselves in the foot with hitting errors. DeJesus made some things happen to score a few points but it wasn’t enough, as FLC lost 25-14.
FLC is back at home on Friday against Regis at 6 p.m.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
