Box Score Second place was up for grabs in the Jayhawk West Monday night. Cloud County hosted second place Seward County with large postseason seeding implications on the line.
It was a tale of momentum swings as Seward appeared to be cruising to a three set victory. Cloud stormed back and captured momentum to win the third, and fourth sets before eventually losing in the fifth. Cloud dropped the match by scores of 11-25, 17-25, 25-21, 25-19, 5-15
After going on a ten game winning streak, Cloud has now lost four in a row. The T-Birds are now 20-11 on the season, 10-5 in KJCCC play. Seward improves to 23-14, 12-3.
Seward jumped out and grabbed the momentum early in the first set. A 0-4 start caused Head Coach Molly Skocny to call an early timeout. Cloud began to battle back in it before sophomore Gaby da Silva went down with an ankle injury. Da Silva would not return and the Saints ran away with the first set. Cloud narrowed the Saints lead to three early on at 6-9, but Seward went on a 16-5 run to pull away and win the first set.
The second set started much the same as Seward jumped out to an early lead. The Saints remained in control throughout. In the absence of da Silva, Cloud got valuable minutes from Brooke Paslay. The sophomore from Atwood, KS had a career high 11 kills on the night including four in the second set. Cloud dropped the second set 25-17.
Cloud once again fell behind early on in the 3rd and appeared to be out of it. With their backs against the wall, the T-Birds stormed back into the game. Seward County Coach Thais Baziquetto-Allen picked up a red card, awarding Cloud with a point, tying the set at 19. Cloud would then capture the momentum and go on a 6-2 run to end the set and win the third set 25-21.
The T-Birds used the momentum from the third set victory and jumped out to an early lead in the fourth. After Seward tied the set at three, Cloud would take the lead for good and eventually win by the score of 25-19. Laura Sudbeck fueled a 6-1 run midway through the fourth to open it up for Cloud. Sudbeck had four kills in the set.
The T-Birds were unable to carry the momentum into the 5th set as Seward quickly jumped to an 8-0 lead in the 5th and deciding set. Cloud clawed back in it, but was not able to overcome the slow start. Seward won the final set 15-9.
In the absence of Gaby da Silva, the scoring effort for Cloud was well distributed. Laura Sudbeck led the way with 12 kills, while Paslay added 11. Jocelyn Marten added 8 kills.
Seward has now cemented themselves into 2nd place in the Jayhawk West. Cloud needed a victory to keep 2nd place alive. The T-Birds are now tied for 3rd place with Colby but Cloud owns the tiebreaker over Colby. Cloud will host Garden City on Thursday night, while Colby will travel to Hutchinson.
Cloud County is still searching for win #21 on the season. 21 wins would be a program record during the rally scoring era, which started in 2001.
Garden City (6-31, 2-12) will come to town on Thursday night for the final regular season matchup. Gametime is 6:30.
