Royals Come up Short in East Sub Regional Finals

The Lake Region State College Lady Royals Volleyball team traveled to Wahpeton, ND this past weekend for the East Sub Regional. They were hoping to carry the momentum they had picked up late in the season to the post season.

The Lady Royals opening game saw them matched up against Dakota County Technical College Knights. DCTC had won the previous matchup between the two teams earlier in the year and it would be more of the same today. The Knights jumped out to an early lead and never looked back taking the match three sets to zero.

Next up for the Royals was Gogebic Community College. This one was all Lake Region from the beginning highlighted by a dominant second set where the Lady Royals won 25-11. LRSC swept Gogebic three sets to zero eliminating Gogebic and moving on for a rematch against DCTC.

With both teams now in a win or go home situation and DCTC having won the previous two meetings the Lady Royals had the odds stacked against them. That did not bother them one bit as they played inspired volleyball. LRSC won the first two sets comfortably and then took the final set in dramatic fashion as they won 26-24 sweeping the match three sets to zero.

This set up a finals showdown between LRSC and the host team North Dakota State College of Science Wildcats. NDSCS had won the previous two matchups with Lake Region but the Lady Royals were determined to change that. They jumped out and took the first set from the Wildcats 25-21. From then on was back and forth, where every serve, every dig, every point was important. The outcome was not what the Lady Royals had hoped for. NDSCS took the final three sets and the match with the final three sets to one.

Head Coach Brigitte Greywater said, "We struggled with DCTC at the beginning of the season, then we struggled in the first round of the regional tournament. However, we came back together as a team and beat them 3-0 to pull as back into the sub regional championship. As a coach, that's all I can ask of my players. Never give up, play with pride and leave it on the floor. They did that Saturday night and it followed them to Sunday. I am delighted that we took a set from NDSCS. When we could be content with DCTC, we showed up and played tough against NDSCS. We competed this weekend."

This concludes another season of Lady Royal Volleyball. Their final record was 9-27 (2-7 Conference).

Go Royals!