Lopes Volleyball sweeps Dodge City Invitational

The Lamar Community College Volleyball team bolstered their record this weekend, returning from the Dodge City Invitational with four big wins.

After an opening set letdown, the Lopes team son six straight sets to finish day one of the tournament in Dodge City, Kansas.

The Lopes beat Independence Community College in four sets (20-25, 25-19, 25-11, 25-15) and Allen County Community College in three (25-11, 25-9, 25-10).

Freshman setter Emily Longnecker led the Lopes attack with 38 assists on the day. She also finished with a total of two aces and 11 digs, plus three kills of her own.

Sophomore libero Monea Ortiz led the Lopes with eight aces and 27 digs.

Freshman outside hitter Anamarija Mikovic had a team-high 25 kills, followed by Taylor Almaguer's 10, Star Hoskie's 10, Michelle Batista's seven, Alex Riley's six and Lena Srdanov's six.

Hoskie also had 11 assists against Allen County and eight digs total.

Mikovic had a total of 17 digs and six blocks. Almaguer and Batista scored three blocks each.

The Lopes look to close out strong with two matches on Saturday, and they'll have to answer an early-morning wake-up call to do it.

On Saturday morning, the Lopes battled Labette Community College, winning the match in five sets (21-25, 25-18, 25-17, 20-25, 15-10).

Sophomore middle Batista led the Lopes with 11 kills and only one error to hit .625 against the Cardinal. Graham also had 11 kills and hit .350 while playing both right side and outside.

Longnecker had a team-high 35 assists and was second with 11 digs to earn a double-double.

Ortiz led the Lopes with 24 digs and three aces.

Mikovic had 15 kills and 10 digs, while Hoskie and Srdanov had nine kills each.

The Lopes faced Clarendon College in the final match of the Invitational, marking the second straight week the Lopes and Bulldogs have met. Lamar was victorious in the first meeting, winning in straight sets 25-17, 25-15, 26-24.

In true Lopes fashion, the team made its final match interesting.  In the end, the Lopes pulled together to earn a sweep of Clarendon and finish the Dodge City Invitational 4-0.

Lamar won 25-18, 25-23, 26-24 behind 9 kills and no errors from Hoskie and 9 kills and 12 digs from Mikovic to improve to 11-4 on the season.

The Lopes used a balanced attack to put away the Bulldogs in three. Six Lopes scored four or more kills, and Lamar hit .352 as a team.

Graham and Srdanov had six kills each, Batista had five and Almaguer had four.

Freshman Sarah Polanco, donning the libero jersey for the first time this season, had 10 digs and was statistically Lamar's second-best passer in serve-receive.

Longnecker had a team-high 24 assists, six digs, a kill and an ace. Samantha Smith had 15 assists, five digs and three aces.

Batista and Mikovic had two aces each.

The Lopes have a relatively quiet week ahead after four straight weekends of three or more matches. Adams State JV will be in Lamar Friday for a 5 p.m. match for the only contest of the week.