The Lady Bucs of Dawson Community College have earned some valuable experience not only playing against high quality teams, but also by playing on the road. This year the Bucs nonconference schedule has been packed full of NJCAA D1 teams and DCC has become better for it. Coach Dina Fritz says, “I know playing against these higher level teams will definitely prepare us for our conference games. Playing tough teams every week will help us become better as a team and make us stronger.”
The Lady Bucs traveled to Rangely, Colorado this weekend to play in the Blue Mountain Inn Tournament. The Bucs went 0-4 on the road trip but feel good going into the rest of their season. The first day of the tournament DCC took on the home team Colorado Northwestern Community College and fell 3 sets to 1. After coming out with a lot of intensity and winning the first set 25-22, the Lady Bucs dropped the next set 17-25. After regrouping they went on a run to open up the third set but were unable to finish, losing the third set 20-25. After battling the whole fourth set trying to push it to a fifth set, the Lady Bucs lost 24-26 to the Spartans of CNCC. The leaders for this game were Lexi Begger with 14 kills followed by Ebonay Clark with 9. Samantha Youngman led the team in assists with 31 and Cierra Loudon scored 2 aces in the effort. Erin Campbell ended the match with 26 digs followed closely by Loudon with 18 and Clark with 17. Baugh dominated the net by racking up 6.5 blocks.
Next up the Bucs took on Western Wyoming Community College. The Lady Bucs lost three very close sets to the Mustangs of WWCC. The Bucs held tough through the whole first set but lost 23-25. The second set was similar to the first set with the Bucs not being able to pull away in time and losing 22-25. The Bucs ended up losing the third 20-25 for the three set sweep. Begger and Loudon led the team in kills with 6 each. Kylee Stump led in assists with 11 followed by Youngman with 9. Three girls ended the game with 2 aces each. Campbell led the defensive charge with 17 digs while Baugh led once again in blocks with 14.
The next day the Lady Bucs faced two more strong opponents starting off with Utah State University Eastern. DCC started off a little slow this game but ended the first set with momentum after going on a late set run, but still lost 16-25. Going into the second set the Bucs felt more comfortable and played well though they dropped the second and third sets 21-25 and 23-25. Begger led the attack with 9 kills followed by Loudon with 7. Youngman once again led in assists with 20 and her and Loudon both served up 2 aces. Campbell led with 13 digs and Begger and Baugh each had 6 blocks.
The final game of the tournament had the Lady Bucs facing Central Wyoming College. CWC jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead in the first set but the Bucs battled back once again making it a close set all the way to the end but couldn’t pull off the comeback, dropping the first set 20-25. The final two sets posed problems for the Bucs as they couldn’t get much going and ended up losing in three with the final scores of 13-25 and 12-25. The leaders for this game were Baugh with 8 kills, followed by Begger with 7. Youngman tallied up 21 assists and Baugh ended the game with 3 aces. Campbell once again led in digs with 15, following behind her was Harlee Speth and Loudon with 10 each. Baugh finished off the game with 5 blocks and Begger had 4.5.
Overall it was a good weekend for the Bucs even though they didn’t get the wins they had hoped for, they got valuable playing time against good teams and are excited to play in their first home match this Wednesday, September 12th when they face off against the Mystics of Bismarck State College. It is the Bucs annual “Black Out Night” so fans are invited to come dressed in black and cheer on the Lady Bucs. Saturday the Bucs will also be playing at home against Briercrest in a double header starting at 1pm. The theme for that day is “Disney,” so fans can come dressed as a Disney character and support the team!