LEWISTON, Idaho – Consistently inconsistent has been the perfect description of the University of Providence volleyball team in 2017 and the team held true to that in the final match of the regular season. Two days removed from a stunning 3-0 upset of (15) Montana Tech, the Lady Argos lost to unranked Lewis-Clark State College 3-1 (27-25, 16-25, 25-14, 25-23).
 
While the loss to a team UP beat 3-1 earlier in the year is disappointing, it ultimately had no effect on the team's place in the Frontier Conference standings and its seeding in the conference playoffs. The Lady Argos finish the regular season in fourth out of the seven conference teams and will be the 4-seed in the conference tournament which starts on November 10 in Helena, Montana.
 
The long trip from Great Falls, Montana to Lewiston, Idaho seemed to take a toll early on for the Lady Argos. UP got out to a 7-1 deficit against the Warriors, getting hammered by an athletic opponent.
 
A few 3-0 leads throughout the set eventually reeled LC State in and eventually UP caught them at 21-21. The rest of the set went back-and-forth but with the scored tied at 25 all, the Warriors got 2 straight kills to take the first set 27-25.
 
There was no slow start for UP in the second set. The team scored the first 4 points and used that momentum to take a 17-7 lead. LCSC got as close as 4 points but never better than that in a set that the Lady Argos flat out dominated.
 
The difference was a much better performance from the Lady Argos defense that dropped the Warrior's hitting percentage from .273 in the first set to .031 in the second. LC State managed just 6 kills in the set, while the Lady Argos had 15.
 
It was a totally different story in the next set. The Warrior's offense had its way with UP, getting 17 kills and just 2 errors on 32 attempts for a staggering percentage of .469.
 
The match turned into all offense by the fourth set. The two teams combined for 35 kills, and 9 errors in 94 attempts in the set. UP led most of the way, but a late 4-0 run flipped the score from 20-19 Lady Argos to 23-20 Warriors.
 
UP then scored 3 of the next 4 points to bring the score to 24-23 LCSC, but the Warriors got a kill on the next play to end the match.
 
Three Lady Argo hitters accounted for 64 percent of the teams kills. Seniors Mariah Diaz and Korie Milan, along with freshman Sydney Andersen all had 12 kills in the match and combined for just 12 hitting errors.
 
They were fed by setters Ava Larkin and Paige Jensen who also proved to be UP's two best court defenders in the match. The freshman Larkin led the team with 25 assists and had a team leading 13 digs for her seventh career double-double. Jensen, a junior, was second on the team in both categories with 21 assists and 10 digs for her second double-double.