The Lakeland women's volleyball team played host to the Lorain County Commodores tonight and dropped a tough 3-0 decision (17-25, 16-25, 19-25). The Lakers got off to a slow start in game 1 trailing 16-6 at one point. Lakeland would use an Erica Merth ace and a couple of Kaitlynn Minarik kills to climb back into this game. Later, an Astianna Coppes ace would bring the Lakers within 4 at 17-21. Unfortunately, Lakeland would be unable to maintain that momentum as the Commodores closed it out. Game 2 had a different flavor as the Lakers continued their strong play early on. With the Lakers trailing 4-5, Minarik hit a kill to knot the score at 5. Merth followed with a kill before Lorain committed an error to give the Lakers a 7-5 lead. On the next play, Coppes and Merth had a combo block to increase the Laker lead to 8-5. The teams would trade points before Coppes hit an ace to give the Lakers a 12-9 lead. From there, Lakeland committed a few unforced errors allowing LCCC to take control of the game and earn the win. In game 3, the Lakers again trailed early. Lorain jumped out to a quick 12-5 lead and the two teams exchanged points or small runs the rest of the match.

Players of the game were Kaitlynn Minarik, Allison Hendrick, and Astianna Coppes. Minarik finished her night with 8 kills, 10 digs, and a block while Coppes picked up 4 kills, 12 assists, 2 aces, and 2 blocks.

Watts' Word: "We were trying some different rotations tonight. We really tried to give some players opportunities in different positions and we tried a few different rotations. We continue to work hard. The team is really staying positive and continuing to give good effort. We'll keep working at it as we have a challenging trip coming up this weekend."

Next Up: The Lakers travel to Piqua, OH on Friday to square off against the Edison State Chargers in a 6:00 pm match. On Saturday, they will travel to Clark State to face the Eagles in an 11:00 am match.