Lady Bears hit their stride with Central City title

LAUREL — The Laurel-Concord-Coleridge Lady Bears volleyball team had a very busy and very successful week winning five straight matches dating back to Sept. 14.

The Lady Bears won back-to-back best-of-five set matches with Tri County Northeast and Plainview on Sept. 17 and Sept. 19 respectively, then traveled to Central City on Sept. 21 for the Central City Invitational and swept through the tournament over Wood River, Adams Central and Central City to improve to 14-2 overall heading into this week’s action.

In the finals at Central City, Rena Rasmussen led a three-headed attack with 11 kills and recorded a doubledouble by adding 14 digs to her match.

Tali Ewin and Kaida Eriksen each added eight winners and Carlie Kvols tipped up 29 set assists.

Lainey Schutte had a productive line in the contest registering a couple of slams, a pair of ace serves, four blocks and eight digs.

Eriksen came up with 13 digs, Bailey Graf added 10.

The Lady Bears sent Adams Central packing in the match before the finals with a come-from-behind win after dropping the first set, 25-23.

Rasmussen had another doubledouble along with Kvols.

Rasmussen smacked 11 winners and had 14 digs, Kvols had 32 assists and 11 digs.

Schutte and Erwin tacked on eight and six winners respectively and Eriksen had a fantastic back row with 27 quality passes to go along with her nine digs and five kills.

In the opening round of the tournament, LCC had little trouble in taking care of Wood River, sweeping the Lady Eagles 25-10 and 25-12.

Earlier in the week, Laurel-Concord- Coleridge had a couple of regular season matches on the road at Plainview on Sept. 19 and at Tri County Northeast in Allen on Sept. 17.

The Lady Bears swept the Lady Pirates 25-16, 25-19 and 25-18 in a Greater Northeast Activities Conference match.

Rasmussen slammed 15 winners with Erwin adding seven, Schutte five, Eriksen four and Kvols and Tyler Recob three each.

Rasmussen had another doubledouble with 17 digs and Kvols recorded 28 assists.

In the TCNE match, the Lady Wolfpack won the opening set 25-23, but the Lady Bears got with it from there and took the next three 25-12, 25-14 and 25-15.

The story of the night was the Rasmussen-Kvols connection as Rasmussen drilled 29 kills and Kvols tipped up 44 set assists.

The subplot was the Lady Bears back row as Eriksen had 15 digs, Schutte and Rasmussen 14 each and Kvols has a dozen.

LCC is set to host a triangular Sept. 26 with Wakefield and Wynot. They will travel to Pierce on Oct. 1 with a best-of-five-sets match with the Lady Bluejays.

k=Kills, a=Ace Serves, b=Blocks, d=Digs, s=Set Assists, r=Successful Pass.

LCC def. Central City 20-25, 25-18, 25-17. LCC (14-2): Lainey Schutte 2k, 2a, 4b, 8d, 13r; Tyler Recob 1k, 2b, 4d; Tali Erwin 8k, 3a, 3d, 7r; Rena Rasmussen 11k, 4a, 3b, 14d, 1s, 10r; Carlie Kvols 1k, 2b, 9d, 29s; Kaida Eriksen 8k, 2a, 3b, 13d, 11r; Bailey Graf 10d, 1s, 7r. LCC def. Adams Central 23-25, 25-17, 25-22. LCC: Schutte 8k, 1a, 5d, 7r; Recob 1k, 1a, 3d; Erwin 6k, 2a, 10d, 1s, 5r; Rasmussen 14k, 2b, 10d, 10r; Kvols 5k, 1a, 2b, 11d, 32s; Eriksen 5k, 1a, 9d, 27r; Millie Schutte 4d, 6r. LCC def.Wood River 25-10, 25-12. LCC: L, Schutte 1k, 2a, 6d, 4r; Recob 1k, 2b, 3d; Erwin 6k, 2b, 4d, 1s, 3r; Rasmussen 7k, 7b, 3d, 2s, 5r; Kvols 1k, 1a, 2b, 3d, 16s; Eriksen 5k, 3a, 10d, 4r; Graf 4d, 4r. LCC def. Plainview 25-16, 25-19, 25-18. LCC: Schutte 5k, 1a, 1b, 2d, 1s, 14r; Recob 3k, 3d; Erwin 7k, 1a, 4d, 1s, 5r; Rasmussen 15k, 4a, 1b, 17d, 10r; Kvols 3k, 1a, 1b, 5d, 28s; Eriksen 4k, 6d, 9r; Graf 3d, 6r. LCC def. Tri County Northeast 23-25, 25-12, 25-14, 25-15.