September 9, 2016 - - Another solid weekend is in the books for the Lady Commodores of Lorain County Community College as the team traveled to Lakeland Community College for a 4 game tournament. Playing against four Division II teams, LCCC took the first 3 matches before falling to Oakland Saturday afternoon.
In the first match against Mercyhurst NE, LCCC once again dominated the Saints in 3 sets to complete the sweep. Similar to their match back on August 27th, the Lady Commodores made everything difficult for the Saints at the net. Maryssa Kellick had 29 total attacks with 17 kills to lead her team. Along with Kellick, Kara Kelm chipped in 10 kills off of 26 attempts, Shannon Reaser with 32 assist and Ali Stanziano had 12 digs. After a tough first set where they pulled away late for a final score of 25-16, LCCC found their groove, dominating the final two sets by a final score of 25-7 and 25-15.
With minimal time to rest, LCCC faced off against a very tough Lansing Stars team that was desperate for a big win Friday evening. The Lady Commodores got all they could ask for as they went four sets, winning the sets 25-19, 25-21, 18-25, and 25-16. The stat lines for both teams were very similar in kills (41 each), 40-37 assist and 69-57 digs in favor of the Stars. The difference was how well LCCC kept their composure late in the sets and forced Lansing to commit more errors. The Commodores had 10 service aces with only 6 service errors while Lansing had 4 serving aces to their 8 serving errors. Leading the way once again was Maryssa Kellick and Kara Kelm who combined for 29 of the teams 41 kills. Big for the Commodores was the amount of digs they had as the team, with 57 digs; Ali Stanziano lead the way with 18, Shannon Reaser with 10 and Lindsay Eisbrenner had 10. After giving up the 3rd set, LCCC took care of business and won the final set 25-16 and won the match in 4.
Much was the same in the team's 3rd match of the weekend as they took on DII Potomac State who came into this weekend undefeated at 5-0. Coming out very fast, LCCC took set one, led by Kellick who came away with 24 kills, 7 service aces, and 6 digs. Kelli Warren, who had a quiet two matches earlier, had 8 kills while Kelm had 10 of her own. The Lady Commodores got a better look at the undefeated team in set 2 as things didn't go as planned; LCCC dropped the 2nd set 26-24 but regathered themselves to dominate the final two sets. Playing every ball like it was game point, LCCC seemed to cover the floor very well; Ali Stanziano had 17 digs and McKenzie Zauner gave her team 14 digs. With this strong play, LCCC found themselves 3-0 on the weekend with one final match left.
In the final match of the weekend, LCCC ran into a very tough team at the wrong time. The Lady Commodores would have no answers for the Raiders of Oakland CC (5-4) who would sweep LCCC. With the first set ending 25-20, LCCC poured the rest of their energy out in set 2 but fell once again 26-24. With the Raiders size and speed, LCCC fell in set three 25-16. On the bright side, Kellick had a solid game at the net with 14 kills, while Shannon Reaser had 11 digs and Ali Stanziano had 10 of her own. The errors of LCCC doomed them as they just couldn't put together a clean game against Oakland. With this loss, the Lady Commodores finished the tournament 3-1 and see their season record go to 8-4 (1-1).
LCCC will be back in action Wednesday September 14th at Owens CC. The Express are 10-2 (2-0) and are ranked 6th in Division II in the NJCAA while the Lady Commodores started as the 7th ranked team in Division III. Game is set for 6:00pm.
Box Score vs Mercyhurst NE
Box Score vs Lansing
Box Score vs Potomac State
Box Score vs Oakland
