After a sluggish first set, the Fort Lewis College volleyball team gave the No. 9 team in the country a run for its money.
The FLC Skyhawks played their final home match of the season Thursday night at Whalen Gymnasium. It was a tough task on senior night, as the Skyhawks hosted the No. 9 Colorado Mesa Mavericks.
Colorado Mesa (23-3, 16-1 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) dominated the first set 25-8 and controlled the second set to win 25-20, but the scrappy Skyhawks (7-18, 4-13 RMAC) clawed their way to a 27-25 win in the third set.
Still, it wasn’t enough to get back in the match, as the Mavericks won the fourth set 25-16 to take a 3-1 victory.
The first set was tied at 5, but that’s when the Mavericks went on an impressive 20-3 run to close out the set 25-8.
Melissa Hess, who tied for the team high with 15 kills for the Mavericks, had six kills in the first set and hit .857.
The Skyhawks went down 5-1 early in the second set but rallied back to take a 10-8 lead behind blocks and kills by Ashley Wells. But the Mavericks again got hot, going on a 6-0 run to reclaim a 14-10 lead before an FLC timeout.
Colorado Mesa never looked back, going on to win the set 25-20 behind another big set from Hess, who had another five kills.
The Skyhawks hit just .016 percent as a team through the first two sets.
But FLC dug deep to win the third set 27-25 behind consecutive blocks by Heather Danny and Shelby Lehman when the set was tied at 25.
The Mavericks led 15-12 and 20-17 in the third set but couldn’t separate any further from the Skyhawks, as Maddi Bickle caught fire hitting.
The Skyhawks hung with the Mavericks through 30 points in a tied fourth set at 15-all. But Abby Ney and Audrey Steinkirchner sparked the Mavericks on a 10-1 run to finish the set and the match with a 25-16 win.
Steinkirchner had two kills and a block in the final 10 points, and Ney had three blocks.
The Mavericks hit .246 as a team compared to just .106 for the Skyhawks.
Wells led FLC with nine kills on .152 hitting percentage, and she added another 16 digs. Bickle added eight kills and nine total blocks. Stephani Sonka had seven kills, and Heather Danny led FLC with 32 assists and four digs.
FLC libero Ally Dell’Amico had 14 digs in the match.
Jordyn Moody led the Mavericks with 42 assists and 12 digs for the double-double. She also had three kills.
Abby Ney joined Hess with 15 kills, and Ney added seven total blocks. Hess hit .478, and Ney hit .444 for the match.
Tiffany Petersen had a match-high 20 digs for Colorado Mesa, and Erin Perez had a double-double with 11 kills and 12 digs.
It was FLC’s second loss of the year to the mighty Mavericks, with the first coming 3-0 (25-15, 25-11, 25-19) in Grand Junction.
Five FLC seniors were honored during the match: Danny, Ciara Krening, Tehya Smith, Sonka and Wells.
FLC will finish its season at 7 p.m. Saturday on the road against Adams State. FLC lost to the Grizzlies 3-2 on Oct. 17 at home.
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
