EL DORADO, Kansas — The Cloud County Community College volleyball team struggled to gain traction in Wednesday's road loss to Butler Community College, falling in straight sets: 25-8, 25-12 and 25-16.

It was a tough start to a seven-match road stretch for the T-Birds (4-15 overall, 1-7 KJCCC), who entered the contest coming off of a dominating sweep of Pratt Community College on Monday.

Butler (15-6 overall, 5-3 KJCCC) built quick leads and led wire-to-wire through the first two sets before the T-Birds would find their footing in Set Three.

Cloud County took its first lead of the match at 6-5 in the third set following a kill down the line by redshirt sophomore, Drew Mann. An ensuing attack error by the Grizzlies gave Cloud its largest lead at 7-5 and forced a Butler timeout.

The Grizzlies came out of the timeout with a 6-1 run, however, to take an 11-8 lead. The T-Birds were unable to pull even the rest of the way, falling 25-16 in Set Three to conclude the contest.

Offensively, Cloud was led by sophomore outside hitter Irem Bat with five kills. Fellow sophomore Katelyn Ruth added four kills, while freshman setter Cammie Miller tallied nine assists.

Freshman libero Britt Michaelis paced the T-Birds' defense with 10 digs.

Up next for Cloud County will be a road trip to Garden City this Friday to face the Lady Broncbusters (3-17 overall, 1-6 KJCCC) for the first time this season. Action gets underway at 6:30 p.m.