Lady Bears claim GNAC volleyball title

ATKINSON - The Laurel-Concord-Coleridge Lady Bears volleyball team swept its way to the Greater Northeast Activities Conference Tournament title Oct. 24.

The Lady Bears earned the title with a 2520, 25-16 and 25-22 sweep over the West Holt Lady Huskies after taking down Lutheran High Northeast in another sweep 26-24, 25-10 and 25-15 in the semifinals Oct. 21 in a match played in Laurel.

In fact, the Lady Bears have swept the month of October, not losing a set since a Sept. 30 match with Pierce.

“We’ve really been working on forgetting what just happened and concentrating on the next point,” said Lady Bears coach Julie Kvols. “We can’t let what already happened bother us, we’re getting better at it and this is the time of year it’s even more important.”

LCC took the first set against the Lady Huskies 25-20 then took control of the match with the 25-16 second-set win. West Holt kept the final set close, but the Lady Bears got it going late to post the sweep.

Rena Rasmussen paced the Laurel-Concord-Coleridge attack with 13 kills in the match, Tyler Recob and Kaida Eriksen each contributed eight winners.

Recob added four ace serves, Carlie Kvols tacked on three and Eriksen had a pair of aces.

Kvols posted 33 set assists. Boston Brown and Eriksen each had three blocks at the net and Eriksen recorded 10 digs.

In the semifinals the Lady Eagles hung right with the Lady Bears in the first set, taking Laurel-Concord-Coleridge to extra points before falling, 26-24.

“At the beginning of the season I wasn’t really sure what we had,” said Lutheran High coach Katie Wright Oswald. “We had these different puzzle pieces and we’re just trying to figure out where each player fits into which part of the puzzle, like tonight we moved Lexie (Dinkel) one of our big outside hitters, to the left side to help with the block.

“Mentally, we have struggled this season when things don’t go our way. We don’t have that recovery to just move on to the next point. We didn’t do that tonight.”

The Lady Bears looked as if they would make short work of the Lady Eagles in the first set while jumping out to a 10-3 lead and the lead remained around seven points until Lutheran High battled back to 17-13 after a Laurel-Concord-Coleridge service error.

Yatziri Martinez rifled an ace serve for the Eagles to make it 17-15 then a monster slam by Dinkel made it 17-16.

LCC helped the Lady Eagles with an attack error then Martinez completed the comeback with another winner from the service line and Lutheran High was up 18-17.

A service error evened the score then Rasmussen tipped a kill off the tape and down, one of her 23 winners of the night, and the Bears were back on top 19-18.

Another Rasmussen pace shot found the floor and Laurel-Concord-Coleridge was up 20-18.

The teams traded errors before a Reagan DeLancey ace and another Dinkel kill tied it at 21-21.

A quick-set by Kvols, who would finish with 32 set-assists in the match, led to another Rasmussen winner but an attack error tied it back up at 22.

Eriksen hammered a monster kill for the Lady Bears which really got her going for the night.

Eriksen hit another winner to make it 2423 but Alaina McCormick smashed one for the Eagles and it was tied again, 24-24.

Eriksen made it 25-24 with a slam then Recob put the set to bed with a kill off the Lutheran High touch.

Laurel-Concord-Coleridge jumped out early in set two paced by four ace serves by Recob which led to a 9-2 lead early.

“We’ve had some ups and downs this season and those challenges show us what we need to work on and use those things in a game,” said Recob. “We look to each other for leadership on the court; it just depends on what’s going on in the match. We kind of all lead when we need to at times.”

The Lady Bears would go on to take set three 25-10 then put the match away in set four 25-15.

Laurel-Concord Coleridge was set to open action in the C2-6 Subdistrict Tournament in Oakland against Elkhorn Valley on Oct. 28.

A win over the Lady Falcons would place the Lady Bears in the finals against either top-seeded Oakland-Craig or Ponca on Oct. 29.

Laurel-Concord-Coleridge 25 25 25 West Holt 20 16 22

k=Kills, a=Ace Serves, b=Blocks, d=Digs, s=Set Assists, r=Serves Received.

LCC: Tyler Recob 8k, 4a, 5d, 12r; Boston Brown 3k, 3b, 4d, 12r; Hattie McCorkindale 2k, 1d, 1r; Rena Rasmussen 13k, 7d, 1s, 7r; Carlie Kvols 2k, 3a, 5d, 33s; Taelynn Settje 2d, 8r; Laney Folkers 1k, 2d; Kaida Eriksen 8k, 2a, 3b, 10d, 2s, 8r. Laurel-Concord-Coleridge 26 25 25 Lutheran High NE 24 10 15 LAUREL-CONCORD-COLERIDGE: Recob 3k, 4a, 6d, 9r; Brown 3k, 2a, 1b, 7d, 1s, 7r; McCorkindale 1k, 2d; Rasmussen 23k, 2a, 5d, 2s, 4r; Kvols 4k, 5d, 32s; Settje 2d, 8r; Folkers 1k; Eriksen 6k, 1a, 1b, 11d, 4s, 11r.