Commodores Set to Open 2023 Season vs. Edison State

The Lorain County Community College women's volleyball team is set to open up the 2023 season this Saturday against the Edison State Community College Chargers inside the Ewing Activity center Gymnasium.  Match is set for 11 a.m. and will be broadcast live on LCCC's athletic website athletics.lorainccc.edu.

To open the 2022 season, the Commodores came back to defeat Edison in five sets on the road on August 21, 2022 where they hit .171 as a team and compiled 57 kills coupled with 49 assists.  On October 21, 2022, LCCC won convincingly in four sets at home to complete the season sweep by hitting .193 with over 50 kills and 50 assists. It was the first time the Commodores swept the Chargers in the season series since the 2015 season.

The 2022 season was punctuated by the play two players: Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OCCAC) Player of the Year Chelsey Farris and Libero of the Year Izabel Gallardo-Santo Domingo (Elyria, Ohio/Elyria HS).  Together, they led the Commodores to their best season since 2018 with a 14-10 record with a 10-4 mark in the OCCAC. In addition to sweeping Edison State, they also swept OCCAC foes Hocking, Lakeland, Clark State, and Cuyahoga. As a team, the Commodores were second in the conference in kills per set (11.73), digs per set (18.65), assists per set (10.72), and points per set (15.7).

Head Coach Ted Whitsel also received his first Coach of the Year honor from his counterparts in the conference.  Since taking over the team in 2014, Whitsel is 144-103 as head coach of the LCCC volleyball program.

Returning this season for the Commodores are five players: Gallardo-Santo Domingo (Elyria, Ohio, Elyria HS), Josie Filice (Lakewood, Ohio/Lakewood HS), Alexa Bunevich (Lakewood, Ohio/Lakewood HS), Abbey Williams (North Ridgeville, Ohio/First Baptist Christian HS), and Maggie Riley (Elyria, Ohio/Midview HS).

The freshmen last season stepped up and played a big role in the Commodores 2022 campaign.  Along with Gallardo-Santo Domingo, Riley had the fourth best mark in the OCCAC in assists per set (5.43).  Filling the shoes of the departed Farris, Williams looks to improve on her freshman season where she ranked 13^th in the OCCAC in kills per set (1.95) and 16^th in blocks per set (.46).  Williams, the tallest player on last year and this year's team at 5'11", also finished with .150 hitting percentage, which was 15^th in the conference.

Joining the Commodores this season are six players, all of which attended high school in Lorain County. Niyanna Flowers (Lorain, Ohio/Clearview HS) joins the squad after being the captain of the Clippers volleyball team where she played three varsity seasons. Joining flowers is her 2021 high school teammate Nilaysia Todd (Lorain, Ohio/Clearview HS), who led the Clippers in 2022 with 2.5 kills per set and a .176 hitting percentage. Debra Milum (Elyria, Ohio/Midview HS) played varsity for three years as well for the Middies where she was a team captain as an outside hitter. Milum also played sand volleyball at Midview High School.

Kylie Zocchi (Avon, Ohio/Avon HS) played for the Avon Eagles and played for the Spirit club volleyball team and did some coaching with BOSS CLE Junior Volleyball Club.  Dinah Hill (Canton, Ohio/Elyria HS) played volleyball for the Pioneers and Brianna Vidovich (Lorain, Ohio/Elyria Catholic HS) played club volleyball for the Panthers.