Lexie Shearer (Photo by Noah Clooten)
DEVILS LAKE — The top two volleyball teams in the Mon-Dak Athletic Conference squared off Tuesday night.
Lake Region State College (17-7, 2-1) succumbed to the power of North Dakota State College of Science (10-4, 3-0) at the Devils Lake Sports Center. The Royals competed in all three sets but ultimately got swept 3-0 on their home court.
The Wildcats tend to be a force in volleyball, basketball and softball.
“A lot of it is just the pressure that we put on ourselves when Science is in town,” LRSC head coach Steve Waddell said. “It’s hard to tell them that it’s just another match. … At the end of the day, they want to beat them every time. And it’s hard to deal with that kind of mentality, right?”
The Royals came out playing a fast-paced game. They won the first five points of the night. But they ended up dropping the first set, 25-15. The second and third sets were tight losses of 25-22 and 26-24, respectively.
“I felt like we were kind of up and down,” Waddell said. “We played about 75% of the match really, really tough. And then that 25% of the match where we let up, is when they were able to take hold. So it’s on us.”
Sydney Schwabe led off the match with an ace to get LRSC off on the right foot. Katie Leece, who led the Royals with nine kills on the night unofficially, followed up Schwabe with a kill. The Royals had a 5-0 lead after three straight errors.
But Science outplayed LRSC for the rest of the set after holding a timeout. The Wildcats won 13 of the next 19 points, including five in a row, to take over the lead.
The teams were tied, 14-14. Science won six in a row from there, and 11 of the set’s final 12 points. The Wildcats played a tough blocking game and put away their kills more often than not.
For the second set, Science was just marginally better than LRSC most of the way through. The Royals never had a lead after going up 3-2, and they trailed by as much as 18-12. But they won four in a row to make it close.
A big part of that was Kaitlyn Erickstad, who recently returned from injury. She had six kills on the night unofficially, including two in that 4-0 stretch.
The Royals are still missing players like Madison Samuelson and Morgen Disrud, but they’re slowly working back to full strength.
“That’s huge for us,” Waddell said. “Now if we could keep getting everybody back, it’d be nice to have our normal lineup. But it’s great that they’re trickling in, and we’re starting to get everyone healthy when it matters.”
Down 24-20, LRSC fought off two set points. An incredible point ended in a kill by Leece, with Science libero Sydni Roberts making a pair of impressive digs. The Wildcats finished the three-point win with a kill to take a 2-0 match lead.
In the third set, the Royals turned a 4-0 deficit into a 5-5 tie. After a 3-0 run that included two kills from Lexie Shearer, they went ahead 9-8.
“I feel like we were learning a lot,” Waddell said. “We were making adjustments, and we were taking away some of their strengths. They like to run that slide-behind, and I felt like our block did a really nice job of adjusting to that.”
LRSC’s sideline didn’t have the demeanor of one that was down two sets to zero. The players erupted with every point won and picked each other up after losing points.
Leece and Anne Stroklund each had four kills in the third set.
“We started settling in on our serve a little bit more, so that was good,” Waddell said. “We served better. We served more tough. We served more consistently.”
The Royals held onto a 21-19 lead before they dropped five straight. The Wildcats’ front row managed to get it over their heads and come up with a crucial block in crunch time.
Down 24-21, LRSC fought off three set points to extend the set. But Science put the match away with back-to-back aces.
“It’s a little disappointing to see us go out with a couple of aces from them, because our serve-receive is usually our strength,” Waddell said. “But I just felt like our mindset got the best of us tonight.”
It was the first conference loss of the season for the Royals, who have already matched their conference win total from last year. They have seven conference matches left on the roster, including two at home.
For now, Waddell said, the team’s focus is on getting everybody healthy and ironing out the lineup.
“We’re still kind of in the beginning of the season, so we can deal with a few injuries here and there,” he said. “But we’re hopeful to get everybody back here soon for the rest of conference play, for sure.”
LRSC jumps into a non-conference match against Alexandria Technical & Community College on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. The Royals travel for a Mon-Dak matchup with Williston State College next Tuesday, then come back home Wednesday, Oct. 1 for a home conference match against Dakota College at Bottineau.
