Fort Lewis College’s homecoming weekend consisted of a multitude events around campus. The women’s soccer and volleyball teams were in action, the Friday night festivities went off without a hitch, and the FLC football team pulled off one of the biggest upsets in school history. Here is a recap of the entire weekend by reporters Becca Day, CJ Calvert, and Matthew Roy.
Homecoming Bonfire, Fireworks, and Dance Party
Homecoming weekend kicked off with a bonfire and firework show at the North Rim Lot on campus Friday night.
Pizza and soft drinks were served at the bonfire and firework show and local band, Pastapotamus, played during the event.
Durango fireman started the bonfire, which rose well over 50 feet, and observed the fire throughout the event.
The bonfire was lit at 8:00 p.m. and the firework show started half an hour later after the fire died down some.
After the firework show ended the homecoming dance party started at the Student Union in the Ballroom.
The theme of this year’s homecoming was Follow Your Heart, Live Your Adventure.
The dance hosted a live DJ and had a make-your-own gorp bar, Carrie Dietz, FLC resident assistant who helped plan the homecoming dance, said.
“The dance went really well, ” she said.
About 150 students attended the dance party, which was co-sponsored by Student Housing and Conference Services.
Student Union Productions and the Residence Hall Association sponsored and produced many of the events during homecoming weekend.
Volleyball
Skyhawk volleyball had a weekend to forget on homecoming as they dropped both of their matches in sweeps. First was Friday night versus the Chadron State Eagles and then Saturday night against the #12 ranked Regis Rangers. These losses dropped FLC to 8-10 on the season and 3-7 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
On Friday, the Skyhawks looked to halt a two-game losing streak against the Eagles, but Chadron was just too much to handle for FLC.
Chadron came out hot and took the first set rather easily with a 25-18 victory.
The Skyhawks were killed by errors in the first set, committing nine, while the Eagles only had two errors in the set.
The second set was much closer. FLC held on to a lead throughout the entire set until Chadron started turning it on. The Skyhawks let 20-19, needing just five points to win the set and even up the match, but the Eagles went on an 6-1 run against FLC and won the set 25-21.
The third and final set was close throughout with three lead changes and the biggest deficit by either team being three points. The score was tight up until the final point when the Eagles went from a 24-23 lead to a 25-23 lead and that was all she wrote for the Skyhawks.
Sophomore middle blocker Bailey Longacre went on stretches in the game where she couldn’t be stopped as she racked up 12 kills in the match, leading the Skyhawks.
Saturdays game against the nationally ranked Rangers went equally bad for the volleyball team.
The first set was extremely close, featuring eight lead changes, and 16 ties while going into extra points before Regis finally pulled out the win in the first set 29-27.
Skyhawks had a better attack percentage and less errors than their counterparts in the first set despite losing.
This gave the team confidence heading into the last two sets, but the Rangers proved to be too much for the Skyhawks as they dominated the last two sets and won handily by scores of 25-18 and 25-16 respectively.
Longacre again led the Skyhawks in kills, this time with nine, while juniors Maddie LeBlanc and Laine Waters chipped in with seven kills apiece.
Regis freshman libero Caitlyn Burroway killed the Skyhawks all match on both offense and defense as she led both teams in kills with 14 and digs with 17.
The Skyhawks will next play the Adams St. Grizzlies at home on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. as they look to break their four-game losing streak.
Skyhawks Bring in a Win Against #12 CSU-Pueblo
FLC football had their homecoming game this weekend against the number 12 team in the nation, the Colorado State University-Pueblo Thunderwolves, ending the game with a score of 35-24 in favor of FLC.
FLC’s Tyler Telphy scored the first touchdown of the game in the on a long 73-yard rush about halfway through the first quarter to put the Skyhawks up 7-0.
The Skyhawks scored again when FLC’s Tyrell Thomas intercepted a 35 yard pass from Pueblo’s Rex Dausin.
Thomas doubled FLC’s lead and ending the first quarter with a score of 14-0 in favor of the Skyhawks.
In the second quarter, FLC piled on when quarterback Bo Coleman completed a pass to Arealous Hughes for seven yards, bringing the score up to 21-0 for the Skyhawks.
However, the Thunderwolves started trying to mount their comeback when Dausin completed a pass to Zach Boyd with two minutes and 50 seconds left on the clock to cut the Skyhawk lead to 14-points.
However, the Skyhawks retaliated with a touchdown of their own when the Skyhawks drove down the field in the final four minutes of the half and Coleman capped it off with a one yard run on a QB sneak to make the score 28-7 at the end of the first half of regulation.
FLC built up their lead to the biggest margin of the day by the end of the third quarter when Coleman completed a 50 yard screen pass to Telphy, bringing the score to 35-10.
Pueblo managed to score two touchdowns on the Skyhawks by the time the game ended, but it was not enough to beat FLC.
FLC won their homecoming game with a score of 35-24, and improved their record to 3-4 on the season and in the RMAC. Their next game is this Saturday when they travel to Silver City, New Mexico, to take on the Western New Mexico Mustangs in a nonconference bout.
Homecoming Women’s Soccer Games
FLC’s women soccer team played two home games last weekend, one against the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks on Friday and they played the Westminster College Griffins on Sunday.
The Skyhawks defeated the Mavericks 3-1 in the Friday afternoon bout.
Junior midfielder Jackie Strom scored five minutes into the first half of the game for the Skyhawks as she rebounded off of a shot from freshman defender Mia Castaneda and buried it into the back of the net.
In the first few minutes of the second half the Skyhawks scored their second goal of the game.
Freshman midfielder Ally Holloway took a long shot and sunk the ball into the goal, increasing the Skyhawks lead to 2-0.
Alexis Allard, sophomore midfielder for the Mavericks, scored a goal from 20 yards out off of a pass from redshirt freshman forward Zoe Peterson, to cut the lead down to 2-1, but the Skyhawks kept piling on the offense.
The final goal of the game was shot by senior forward Alicia Sanchez who was assisted by freshman forward Ally Eller. Sanchez scored from within the 18-yard box in the last five minutes of the game, which finished with a 3-1 win for the Skyhawks.
FLC’s women’s soccer team then went on to play play against the Griffins on Sunday and lost by a score of 1-3.
The Skyhawks scored the first goal of the game when sophomore midfield Emma Patron scored with an assist from junior midfield Jessica Singleton.
However, Westminster quickly caught up and scored their first goal 20 minutes into the first period. Sophomore forward Emma Heyn scored with an assist by senior defender Jayne Christensen, which brought the score up to a tie of 1-1.
The Skyhawks couldn’t manage to get another goal on the Griffins by the time the second period half.
Westminster’s senior midfielder Jacqueline Williams scored only nine minutes into the second half with an assist by junior midfielder Allie Millerberg, which made the score 2-1 and proved to be an insurmountable lead for the Griffins.
The final goal of the game was a penalty kick made by Westminster’s junior midfielder Libby Dearden, which brought the score up to 3-1 in favor of the Griffins.
FLC’s new overall record for the season is 4-7-1 and their record in RMAC is now 4-5-0.Their next game is against Adams State on October 22.