The Fort Lewis College volleyball team added two more incoming freshmen for the much-anticipated 2019 season, as Kamryn Lopez of Albuquerque and Haley Fonceca of Boise, Idaho, added their names to the Skyhawks roster.
Lopez was a standout in Albuquerque for Volcano Vista High School, where she played libero and became an excellent defensive specialist, as she tallied 391 digs and 441 serve receptions with an average of 5.3 digs per set in 74 total sets played. During her senior year, she helped Volcano Vista reach the state tournament.
In her four-year varsity career, Lopez tallied 1,247 digs, 1,350 serve receptions and racked up 134 aces and 117 kills in 326 sets played.
She was named to the Albuquerque Journal’s first team in both 2017 and 2018. In addition, she earned first team all-Metro League honors in 2016-17 and first team all-district honors from 2016-18.
Fonceca also signed with Fort Lewis as another defensive specialist. During her senior year, she recorded 416 digs and 384 serve receptions alongside 32 service aces in 83 sets played. She played three seasons at the varsity level and her stats improved in all three seasons. She finished her high school career with 704 serve receptions, 751 digs, 56 aces in 160 sets played.
With an incoming class of seven freshmen, head coach Tricia Melfy knows there will be plenty of competition this summer.
“I’m very comfortable with bringing in that many freshmen with where we are headed,” Melfy said. “We’re really deep this year, and adding those extra pieces in Lopez and Fonceca really solidifies that there’s going to be some high-level stuff going on this summer.”
The duo are part of a new-look Skyhawks side that returns just five players from last year’s team that reached the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament for the first time since 2013. Key returners from last year include soon-to-be seniors Bailey Longacre and Ohiyah Shirley, sophomores Jacalyn Sharko and Tye Wedhorn and junior Audrey Stansberry.
Incoming freshmen include Alexa Alameddin, Payton Harmann, Rylee Johnson, Avynn La Rose and Joviana Romero. FLC also picked up five transfers, redshirt freshman Courtney Bayles of Bayfield, Liza Doppler, Chandler Karr, Courtney Laliberte and Alexa Treguboff.
Melfy also brought back a former player to be a full-time assistant for this season. Kendra Swackenberg, a senior captain on last year’s team, was named an assistant coach. Swackenberg recorded 617 assists last season and eclipsed over 2,000 career assists, which moved her to sixth all-time in program history.
“Kendra has this phenomenal spunk and leadership that we need, and she really gets where we’re going as a program, and it was a no-brainer,” Melfy said. “She does the work, she’s passionate and I believe that the players really feed off of her enthusiasm, and I can’t wait for her to be in a match full time with me on the sidelines.”
bploen@durangoherald.com
