CONCORDIA, Kansas — The Cloud County Community College volleyball began its final two-match home stand of the regular season on Monday, falling in three sets (25-21, 25-20 and 25-17) to Butler Community College.

Cloud County (4-27 overall, 1-14 KJCCC) played without starting libero Britt Michaelis due to an injury she suffered during last weekend's Jefferson College Invitational. The loss of the team's digs leader was a notable absence.

"It hurt us on the transition play. Britt usually has quite a few digs and we just missed a little bit of the ability to read the play," said Cloud County head coach, Molly Skocny. "But there's not much you can do about that. I was hoping we'd be able to pick up some of that, but the problem (Monday) was the continued saga of not being able to put the ball down and keep the ball in play."

The T-Birds were competitive throughout the evening against the visiting Grizzlies (24-10 overall, 9-6 KJCCC), and found themselves in positions to take each of the first two sets. Unfortunately for Cloud County, untimely errors, 16 of which were attack errors, put a halt on opportunities to take or expand on leads.

Sophomore middle hitter Irem Bat led all Cloud players with 10 kills off the bench Monday, while fellow sophomores Elizabeth Nobert and Drew Mann each chipped in eight kills.

Freshman setter Kamryn Stark delivered team highs in assists (25) and digs (9) on Monday, as well.

With one match remaining in the regular season — a 6:30 p.m. contest on Wednesday against Dodge City Community College — the T-Birds will need a win to have a chance to grab the final playoff spot in the Region VI Tournament. A victory would tie the T-Birds with Pratt Community College, a team they have split with already this season.

"I believe the first tiebreaker is sets allowed. I'm not exactly sure how that all comes out in the wash. But basically what I told the girls is 'We hate to leave our destiny in someone else's hands. But it's incredibly important that we win on Wednesday,'" Skocny said. "For our sophomores, it'll be a bittersweet night. I know they would have collectively liked to win more this year. But I hope on their last night playing in here they are able to leave feeling good and hopefully be able to advance into the Region VI Tournament."