Lopes battle at home, split weekend games

After a game cancellation and a full month of travel, the Lopes Volleyball team turned home on September 29. The Lopes split their two weekend games, bringing their season to 12-5.

After sweeping the Dodge City Tournament two weeks before, the Lopes brought their winning ways home on Friday night.

After an ugly start put Lamar in an 0-1 hole, the Lopes won three straight sets to put away Clarendon College (18-25, 26-24, 25-15, 25-11).

Jordan Graham swung with a killer mentality to be Lamar's most efficient hitter. The sophomore from Denver put down nine kills and hit .444 on the night.

Samantha Smith led the Lopes with 19 assists and was third with seven digs. She also had a pair of aces.

Freshman Anamarija Mikovic led the Lopes with 14 kills and hit .300. She also had a team-high 12 digs plus two aces.

Freshman setter Emily Longnecker had 17 assists and a well-timed kill.

Sophomore Star Hoskie and freshman Lena Srdanov had six kills each while middle Taylor Almaguer had three kills and no errors. Almaguer also led the Lopes with four blocks.

Sophomore libero Monea Ortiz had 10 digs and tied for the team-high with three aces. Freshman Sarah Polanco also had three aces.

On Saturday, the LCC team faced off against the Garden City Community College Broncbusters.

The Lopes lost in four (19-25, 25-14, 23-25, 25-27) to Garden City after failing to capitalize on big and late leads.

Lamar (12-5) was in line to take a two-sets-to-one lead but let a 13-7 and 23-21 advantage slip away in the third set. The Lopes were determined to force a decisive fifth set but could not hold onto leads of 21-16 and 24-22 in the fourth set.

Hoskie hit 10 kills for a .412 hitting percentage and Graham had a team-high 14 kills and .313 hitting percentage as the Lopes' right sides dominated the attack for the second night in a row.

Smith had a double-double with 22 assists and 10 digs.

Longnecker led the attack with a team-high 25 assists to go with six digs and four aces.

Mikovic had 12 kills, eight digs, a block and four aces.

Ortiz led the Lopes with 14 digs and Polanco added 10 of her own.

Sophomore middle Christina Potter had four kills and three blocks, plus an ace and two digs.

The Lopes are on the road next weekend for the start of Region IX-South play.  They play Thursday, October 5, at Northeastern Junior College followed by Western Nebraska Community College on October 6 and McCook Community College on October 7.