The Lakeland Lakers traveled to Cuyahoga tonight to face the Triceratops in OCCAC action. The Lakers started strong winning the first two games before hitting a bump which they could not recover from as they dropped a 3-2 (25-21, 25-17, 18-25, 15-25, 10-15) decision. Lakeland came out playing strong defense mixed with solid net play to jump out to the 2-0 lead. The Lakers then made some defensive miscues while Cuyahoga turned up the pressure in mounting their comeback. Unfortunately for the Lakers, once the Triceratops got started, Lakeland was unable to stop the comeback.

Sydney Park led the way with 15 kills while Avrie Shenkel added 11 kills for the Lakers. Samantha Winter picked up 38 assists and 4 aces while Estella Dotson finished with 8 kills and 8 digs. Zoe Babnik led the team with 10 digs while Rebecca Ferrell added 5 digs and a team high 7 aces. Abby Karasek and Taylor Williams-Stevens each finished with 4 kills while Allison Hedrick added 4 digs in the defeat.

Player of the Game: Sydney Park and Samantha Winter - Coach Watts comments, "Sydney is a solid all-around player.  The team relies on her and she is a solid leader. Samantha is also an amazing leader. She at times carries our team with her hustle and grind."

Watt's Word: "This was a hard-fought disappointment. We started strong but then some winners anxiety set in. We played afraid to lose instead of playing to win. We lost our cohesiveness for a while and were not able to recover. We see our talent and we are improving. We'll get back at it and get ready for a tough Friday challenge." 

Next Up: The Lakers will play host to the Owens Express this Friday (9/13) at 6:00 pm in Laker Gym.