LC State volleyball wins a pair at home

The Lewis-Clark State volleyball team opened the Hells Canyon Grand Invitational with a pair of wins that included the first Cascade Conference victory of the season on Thursday at the P1FCU Activity Center.

The Warriors (4-1, 1-0) were put to the test against a much-improved Walla Walla (0-1, 0-1) squad in a 25-21, 26-28, 25-17, 25-23 win. Earlier in the day LC State easily dispatched Pacific Union of California in straight sets 25-11, 25-21, 25-18.

“We are getting challenged and I love it,” LCSC coach Katie Palmer said. “We need to be challenged right now so then we can play our best volleyball in October and November. But I am so excited that Walla Walla is going to be a tough team for people to play.”

It is the third time in the last four years that the Warriors have started a season 4-1. It ties their best start to a season since 2010 when they won their first eight contests en route to a 31-3 record.

LCSC will wrap up action in the invitational at 5 p.m. today against Carroll College of Montana at the same site.

Fantastic freshmen

There are your familiar faces like junior outside hitter Juliauna Forgach Aguilar who led the team with 14 kills, senior libero Natany Felix Guimaraes who had a team-high 12 digs and junior setter Esther Kailiponi who contributed three aces.

Seniors Abbey Neff, Anna Merrill, Hallie Seaman and Missy Mortensen are still high contributors on the team. The three standout freshmen from last year, Gianna Anderson, Karissa Lindner and Makenzie Stout are still important parts of the squad, too.

The addition of freshmen Teagan Scott, Taylor Boyce and Ella Stosich has created a depth of talent that has propelled the Warriors to this strong start.

“Coach is really wanting to build this team and it starts with our freshmen,” Forgach Aguilar said. “She’s really building this program to take us to Nationals and I think she’ll do it in the next couple years.”

Scott, an Eagle, Idaho, native led the team with 21 assists and had three digs. Boyce of Windsor, Calif., was the only other player beside Forgach Aguilar to hit double digits in kills with a 13-kill performance. Stosich played in all four sets and had four digs and two aces.

“We have competitive people, that’s what I go and recruit, and Taylor Boyce has an incredible volleyball IQ. And then I would say Ellis Stosich; she’s athletic and she gets it done behind the service line,” Palmer said. “So we’re really excited about our freshmen and what’s really cool is our returners are leading them well and embracing the challenge of competition in our gym and I think that’s why we’re a better program right now.

The depth really impacted the way the team was able to rotate positions and still be a part of the action. Thirteen players recorded at least one dig and seven recorded at least one kill in the match.

Not the same Walla Walla team

Since 2004, the Warriors and Wolves had met 17 times prior to Thursday. In those matches, LC State was 17-0 and won 51-of-52 sets. The only set Walla Walla was able to win was on Aug. 26, 2022, at home with a 25-23 second set victory.

The Warriors had won 31 consecutive sets against the Wolves at the Activity Center until the second set Thursday.

Walla Walla, which went 1-22 last season, brought in new head coach Kiana Krumm and she has quickly gone to work at renovating the program.

“We were able to see a little bit of them and we told our team it’s going to be the best Walla Walla team we have seen,” Palmer said. “Brand new coach, she has high volleyball IQ, high standards, and then they have recruited some unbelievable players.”

In the second set, LC State jumped out to an early 6-2 lead with a pair of kills from both Forgach Aguilar and Merrill.

Walla Walla answered back and a kill by Sahara Browning tied the set at 13. Forgach Aguilar responded with a crushing attack that split the defense for another kill to take a 14-13 advantage.

Then the real battle began.

The two sides would trade points back and forth with the score leveling on 12 separate occasions after that Forgach Aguilar kill.

Tied at 23, Esther Kailiponi was unable to hit a clean serve and gave the Wolves a set point. Walla Walla’s Idalis Bedore gave the gift back with a service error of her own.

The two teams would push it to 26-26 before a Forgach Aguilar attack went wide. On Walla Walla’s third set point, Lauren Moody finished off a frantic rally to give the Wolves the set and square up the match.

“They’ve definitely gotten a lot better,” Forgach Aguilar said. “They have really great hitters now this year.”

Early season hiccups

Both teams had stretches where they did not play the cleanest volleyball. For the Warriors, it was the second set where they had a combined 10 errors. For Walla Walla it was a sketchy first set where the team had 10 errors and a hitting percentage of .026.

Walla Walla had 14 service errors in the match, including two early in the fourth set in an otherwise dominant start to the frame. The Wolves jumped out to a 9-2 advantage and the only two points they gave up were on service errors.

LC State was not much better at the line with nine service errors. However, the Warriors made up for it with eight aces in the contest.

Strong finish

After falling down 9-2 in the fourth set, the Warriors won seven of the next eight points to cut the lead to one. A Merrill block three points later would tie the set at 11.

Forgach Aguilar had a pair of kills, one with force and another with touch. Kailiponi had an ace, but Walla Walla would not go away and pushed the set to 19 all.

A service error by Walla Walla’s Femke Eising, an attack error by Kiana Cueto and a kill by LCSC’s Boyce put the Warriors three points away from victory.

Boyce added another kill and Mortensen got in on the action with a kill of her own to set up match point for LC State, 24-21. The Wolves staved off two match points, but Seaman smashed one into the near corner to put it away and push the Warrior winning streak over Walla Walla to 18 straight.

“We have a lot of fight and grit in us, so even with any losses we take, we’ll be going down hard,” Forgach Aguilar said. “I expect us to be winning a lot of games and just fighting through everything.”

LC State def. Pacific Union

In the first contest of the Hells Canyon Grand Invitational, the Warriors had a much easier time with the Pioneers (0-1).

LC State compiled 39 kills to just 15 errors with a hit percentage of .203.

Forgach Aguilar led the team with 17 kills, and Seaman added five of her own. Scott had 19 assists to lead the Warriors. Felix Guimaraes had 17 digs.

Isbelle can be reached at 208-848-2268, risbelle@lmtribune.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @RandyIsbelle.