Lady Bears end season at SubDistrict tournament

CROFTON — Laurel-Concord- Coleridge had split two previous matches with Ponca on the volleyball court this fall and ran into the Lady Indians for the third time this season in the open ing round of the C2-5 SubDistrict Tournament held in Crofton Oct. 24.

Unfortunately, the third time was not the charm and the L ady Bears fell to Ponca 25-11, 25-18 and 25-22 in the best-of-five-sets match.

LCC had swept Ponca 3-0 in a regular-season showdown back on Aug. 30 and then lost to the L ady Indians in the Wakefield Invitational on Sept. 8 2-1 at the end of a five-game slide.

The Lady Bears seemed to have righted the proverbial ship as they had won eight of their last 10 matches.

Laurel-Concord-Coleridge started the match very tentatively and fell behind in the first set 5-1 before making a comeback to a single point at 6-5.

Tali Erwin started the run with a tip-kill just over the net, followed by three Ponca errors.

Ponca scored 12 of the next 14 points to take control of the set and finished with the 25-11 final score to take a 1-0 lead in the match.

Set two started the same as the Lady Bears fell behind 17-8 before rallying with five of the next six points scored.

Ponca made a couple of errors before the LCC attack heated up.

Another Erwin winner made it 17-11, then Mollie Schutte rifled a kill and had a block at the net to make it 18-13, but the Lady Bears would get no closer.

LCC battled in the third set after falling behind early.

The Lady Bears evened the score at 6-6, 7-7, 8-8 and 9-9 be -fore taking advantage of a couple of Lady Indian errors to grab its first lead 11-9.

Ponca went on an 11-0 run before Mallory Eriksen smashed a kill off of the Lady Indians’ block to stop the run, then Delaney Johnson had a block at the net to make it 21-14.

Johnson then started a 5-0 run for LCC with a winner and Baylie Graf served an ace and suddenly the Lady Bears were within three, 22-19.

Laurel-Concord-Coleridge survived a couple of match points thanks to another Johnson kill and a Ponca error, but a Lady Indian kill off the LCC block finished the set and the match, 25-22.

Laurel-Concord-Coleridge finished the season 18-13 while Ponca improved to 22-10 and was set to move on to the subdistrict final on Oct. 25 against the host Crofton Lady Warriors.