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LAUREL - Laurel-Concord-Coleridge had little trouble in its opening match of the first-ever Greater Northeast Activities Conference Tournament.
It took just three sets in the best-of-five sets match for the Lady Bears to take care of Neligh-Oakdale 25-8, 25-12 and 25-3 to advance to the semifinals back here at Laurel Oct. 22.
“The girls came out here really focused and took care of our business,” Lady Bears coach Julie Kvols said. “I’m really happy with where we are right now. You never know how a team is going to come out and play in a match like this, but we were ready to go.”
After dominating the first set, the Lady Bears fell behind at the beginning of the second set but 10 straight points put them in front 15-5.
Rena Rasmussen started the run with a couple of kills then Tali Erwin smashed a pair of winners. Another Rasmussen slam, a Lady Warrior hitting error, a Rasmussen ace serve and a kill followed by an Erwin kill and ace block before Lainey Schutte hit a winner and the run was complete.
An Erwin winner on the right side and a kill from Tyler Recob and the score was 18-7.
Rasmussen got a kill from the back row then Schutte served an ace and the score was 20-8.
“Our biggest goal is to get to state and we are focused on that goal, we need to just take it one game at a time,” Schutte said. “We weren’t bothered by moving up to Class C1 this year, we took it as motivation to prove we belong there. We will just continue to work hard and get better every day.”
Recob served an ace to make it 24-10 then Rasmussen put an exclamation point on the set with a monster kill off the Neligh-Oakdale block and the Lady Bears went into set three with a 2-0 lead in the match.
LCC scored the first 10 points of the final set and never looked back on the way to the 25-3 win.
Laurel-Concord-Coleridge was set to take on West Holt in the semifinals on Oct. 22.
Laurel-Concord-Coleridge (25-3) defeats Neligh-Oakdale (5-23) 25-8, 25-12, 25-3.
