Oct. 14-27, 2013www.lcc.edu/lookout

SPORTS6

Photo by Suzanna Powers

Lansing Community College spiker Ashleigh Carr returns a ball during the Stars’ previous game against Kellogg CC Sept. 17.

Opportunity knocks for LCC spikers

Cross country teams shine at home

Richard SchenckSports Editor

The regular season is nearing its end and the playoffs are hope-fully right around the corner for the LCC vol-leyball team.

The Stars owned a 9-15 overall record and a 4-6 mark in the NJCAA’s Western Conference heading into an Oct. 10 match against Kellogg Com-munity College.

The Stars were wel-coming three out of the next four games at home after having four of their last five away from the Gannon Gym.

The Gannon has treated the team well as it carried a 4-2 re-cord at home into the Oct. 10 matchup.

LCC Head Coach Emily Quintero said she is well aware the post season is creeping closer and the need to play well determines

how far her squad will go.

“Right now we are in a three-way tie for fourth place with An-cilla (College) and Jackson (CC),” Quin-tero said. “To progress to regionals we need to be top five.”

Coming in winning three of its last five games, the schedule is in LCC’s favor for reaching in the play-offs.

Quintero pointed out she will be leaning heavily on her fresh-man setter Cheyene Houghton along with sophomores Michaela Miller, Angela Wil-liams and Carly Dar-row.

Miller leads the team with 311 digs. Darrow continues to lead the team with 1.13 blocks per set.

Quintero said she is optimistic return-ing home will have a positive effect on her squad’s performance

with a playoff spot on the line.

“I’m hoping they get back to their comfort zone and play confi-dent,” Quintero said. “This is home court so I hope they take ad-vantage of it.”

Freshman and Bath graduate Morgan Wil-son acknowledges there is little room for error at home in this crucial stretch of the season.

“We will definitely have a home advan-tage,” Wilson said. “It helps us be a better team and work togeth-er because we are used to practicing in this gym.”

Quintero and her team will be looking to notch as many wins as possible to secure a spot in the MCCAA State Tournament.

Wilson summed up the game plan as straightforward as possible: “We just need to play to our ability.”

Richard SchenckSports Editor

All successful teams know that if they per-form well in front of their home crowd, it can serve as a catalyst for a strong season.

Coming off con-tinual success away from the capital city, the LCC men’s and women’s cross country teams returned home to Grand Woods Park on Oct. 4 to host their first meet of the sea-son.

The pressure of running at home for the first time in 2013 didn’t shake the Stars’ nerves as they went about their top-flight business as usual.

LCC sophomores Chris Gantt and Joe Marrah continued their streak of one-two team finishes for LCC. Gantt led the way for the men finishing in 15th place out of 278 runners with a time of 26:03.

Marrah finished in 35th place with a time of 26:39.

Stephen Merchant was the first freshman

across the line for LCC in 39th place with a time of 26:41.

With those top three across the line, the LCC men finished in 6th place out of 25 teams.

“I wasn’t expecting to be third on the team this year but it is a big motivational booster,” Merchant said.

LCC Head Coach Chuck Block explained that overall, this was a positive step in his male harriers’ hopes to perform well in the future.

“We did well as a team,” Block said. “One of our strengths is that we are so deep.”

Block explained that with the depth of the men’s team, it can still finish well even when some runners strug-gle.

The LCC women’s team outperformed the men for the first time this season.

“This is what we were looking for,” Block explained. “The first meet of the season the course was terri-ble, the next meet they ran a 6K, so this was

the first time they were able to run a 5K.”

LCC freshman and Grand Ledge native Allison Dible was first across the line for the women in 28th place out of 243 runners with a time of 19:35.

Sophomore Jessica D’Haene was second for LCC in 35th place in 19:47.

According to Dible the women’s team has added a few wrinkles to practice in hopes that improvement will be made.

“We’ve been work-ing a lot on sprinting at the end of races,” Dible said. “We are building endurance and able to fight the lactic acid in our legs.”

Block said going into a meet Friday, Oct. 11 at Muskegon he is very confident his teams will be standing at the top of the podium.

Information on the Muskegon meet and more will be included in the Oct. 28 issue of The Lookout.

Schedules for the team can be found at www.lcc.edu/athletics.

LCC runners Tim Young (right) and Norman Emineth (left) lead their team at practice on Oct. 8 to prepare for an Oct. 11 meet in Muskegon.

Photo by Suzanna Powers

Men sixth, women fifth at Grand Woods