Loosbrock-led Grizzlies dominate Cowgirls
ASC needs just 65 minutes to dispatch of NMHU for 10th straight time
ALAMOSA, Colo.— Freshman outside hitter Laura Loosbrock (Alamosa, Colo.) put down a match-high 12 kills without a single miscue as she hit .462 to lead the Adams State College volleyball team to a convincing 3-set Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference win over the visiting New Mexico Highlands University Cowgirls, Saturday night here in Plachy Hall.
The Grizzlies hit .333 as a team and needed just an hour and five minutes to dispatch the Cowgirls, who were blocked 13 times throughout the evening.
The 25-10, 25-22, 25-14 victory allowed the Grizzlies to complete their season-long 5-match home stand with a winning 3-2 mark while improving to 8-14 overall and to 5-9 keeping their Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament qualifying hopes alive. The Cowgirls, who were held to a .028 hitting percentage, fell to 4-19 overall and to 0-14 in RMAC play with their 14th straight loss, 12 of which have come in straight sets.
ASC has now defeated the Cowgirls 10 straight times over the last five seasons.
Loosbrock was the only Grizzly in double figures for kills although sophomore outside hitter Dominique Davis (Denver, Colo.) tallied eight while hitting .333. Meanwhile, redshirt freshman middle hitter Deprece Washington (Johnstown, Colo.) added seven kills to go along with her team-high seven blocks.
Freshman middle Megan Tapia (Pueblo, Colo.) also played well, tallying a career-high 12 digs to go along with her six blocks while senior setter Mary McNeil (Phoenix, Ariz.) ran the effective and balanced attack doling out 32 assists to go along with six digs and five blocks.
Ashley Nugent had eight kills to lead the Cowgirls offensively while libero Danielle Schaal had 12 digs to pace the visitors’ back-row.
The Grizzlies absolutely dominated the match and never trailed in any of the three sets. In fact, the match was only tied at 1-1 in the first set before a 12-3 Grizzly run capped by a Letisha Spencer (Rio Rancho, N.M.) service ace, one of six the Grizzlies had on the night, gave the Grizzlies total control and an early 13-4 lead.
The Grizzlies later extended that lead to 23-8 on a Loosbrock kill and McNeil service ace and finished off the first set on a Davis kill.
The Grizzlies hit an impressive .524 in the opening frame and still managed to hit at a .263 clip in the second set that was a bit sloppier.
The Grizzlies did jump out to 4-0 and 7-2 leads in the second set before the Cowgirls battled back to within a single point at 12-11 thanks to a 7-2 spurt.
However, the Grizzlies re-built their lead to 17-12 thanks to back-to-back Tapia and Spencer blocks.
The Grizzlies later led 23-16 on another block before the Cowgirls rallied back to within 23-22 with a 6-0 run of their own behind the serving of Whitney Taylor.
However, Loosbrock stepped up putting down two kills around a Cowgirl timeout to put the Grizzlies up by two sets.
After an initial early tussle that saw the Grizzlies come out with a slight 10-9 advantage in the third set, the Grizzlies went on a 9-1 run that included two blocks and three other unforced Cowgirl hitting errors to go up 19-10, more than enough of a cushion to finish off the victory on a Washington kill.
The Grizzlies hit .290 in the third and final frame and held the Cowgirls to a .000 percentage in it. They had hit just .037 in the first frame and .044 in the second as they committed 25 hitting errors, more than half because of the Grizzlies’ 13 ½ total team blocks.
The Grizzlies, who still sit three full matches behind a 3-way log-jam for the final RMAC Tournament spots, go on the road next week facing Colorado State-Pueblo, currently 7-15 overall and 2-12 in conference play on Thursday night, and Western State, currently 9-11 overall and 4-9 in the loop, on Saturday.
Thursday’s match, which commences at 7 p.m., can be heard live on KSPK-FM (104.1 in Alamosa) and via the internet at www.kspk.com.
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