CONCORDIA, Kan. – Following a four-set afternoon victory over Southeast Community College, the number 13-ranked Cloud County Community College volleyball team earned a statement victory with a 3-0 sweep of number 10 ranked Highland Community College to cap off a 2-0 performance at the Cloud County Triangular inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Friday, October 11th.

Reaching the 20-win plateau, the T-Birds are now 20-5 overall as both matches would count as non-conference matches on the day. Highland falls to 24-7 overall after splitting action which included a four-set win over the Storm, who fell twice on Friday and is now 3-24 overall.

"Our kids were fired up tonight about playing Highland for a second time this season and we were ready to play tonight" said head volleyball coach Deb Monzon in a post-match interview. "Our focus tonight was to clean up our service errors and hitting errors, along with ball controls and cleaning things up in all areas of our game to make our opponents earn the points they get off of us." "Mary Broxterman made a huge difference tonight as she brought everything she had tonight."

Against SCC:

After splitting the first four points of the opening set with the Storm, CCCC would break out a 4-0 run to double up Southeast at 8-4 and force a timeout early on. SCC would respond with a 3-0 run before a Dayana Chara kill would put serve back in the hands of the T-Birds as Cloud County would score seven of the next nine points to go up 16-9 and force another Southeast Community College timeout at 19-11. The CCCC run would continue to end the set as a commanding 25-13 victory would give the T-Birds an early 1-0 lead in the match.

Things would not work in favor of Cloud County to open the second set as a 7-3 run by the Storm would stake SCC to an early lead before a service error to break the run. Cloud County would appear to shake off the slow start by pulling back within one at 8-7, but it would be short lived as Southeast would come back to push their lead back out to six at 14-8 and force a T-Bird timeout. Hoping to regroup with the timeout, CCCC would never be able to close the gap any closer than three throughout the rest of the set as SCC would pull continue to push their lead out and take the set 25-16 and even the match at one set each.

A similar start by the Storm in the third set would find the T-Birds trailing by a score of 7-4 before a Haven Hamilton kill would appear to put the momentum back on the side of Cloud County as CCCC would claw their way back to take the lead at 12-11 and force a timeout from Southeast. The T-Bird lead would then stay in the two to four-point range until a quick run opened the score up to a 20-15 lead as Cloud County would manage to pull away late for a 25-16 set victory to reclaim a one-set lead in the match.

Determined to end things in four sets, Cloud County would score seven of the first 10 points to jump out to a 7-3 lead before seeing the Storm battle back to within two at 10-8. A service error by Southeast would appear to be the catalyst that the T-Birds would need however as that would spark a 4-1 run for Cloud County as part of a larger 9-3 run that would give CCCC breathing room at 19-12. The lead would prove to be enough for the T-Birds to hang on as Southeast would not be able to overcome the large deficit with Cloud County earning a 25-17 set victory to end the match.

A match-best 17 kills from Emelys Martinez would lead Cloud County in the match as the freshman would add eight digs and one service ace to her stat line totals. Riley Bontrager would also provide an offensive component in the match, finishing with 41 assists and four service aces to go along with seven digs.

Against Highland:

Martinez would waste no time picking up where she left off against the Scotties, helping the T-Birds get off to a 5-1 start while scoring four of the first five CCCC points. The Cloud County lead would continue to grow early on and get to 9-3 before a Highland timeout  as things would continue to go in favor of the T-Birds to jump out to a 13-5 lead. The next six points of the set would be split amongst the two teams as the Scotties would then close the gap all the way down to 19-17, but it would be Broxterman who would record back-to-back kills to force a second Highland timeout at 22-17. Ending the set on a 6-1 run, Cloud County would earn a 25-18 victory and get the full force of their home crowd behind them as the T-Birds would take a 1-0 lead in the match. 

Trading runs would be the opening stanza to the second set as a 5-0 Cloud County run would make way for a 5-0 Highland response which would then be followed by a 3-1 T-Bird run to force a Scottie timeout at 8-6 CCCC. Out of the timeout, Cloud County would use a 5-2 run to extend their lead to 13-8, but see Highland battle back to close within three at 15-12. Martinez would once again step up in a big way with a kill to end the Scottie run and be followed up by a Geraldyn Palacios service ace as a 5-0 run by Cloud County made things 20-12 and put the T-Birds in a position to pull away for the set victory. CCCC would do just that, taking five of the final eight points to earn a 25-15 victory and put Highland in a 2-0 hole. 

A quick start by HCC to open the third set would see the Scotties score five of the first seven points to open up a 5-2 lead as Cloud County would respond with a 3-1 run before seeing Chara tie things up at 6-6. Play would continue on as things would find themselves tied once again at 13-13 as the two ties would be part of a seven ties in the set with neither team being able to get more than a single point lead throughout the middle portion of the set. With Cloud County trailing 21-20, Martinez would take matters into her own hands and score the next two points of the match to force Highland into a timeout as the T-Birds would take their first lead since 16-15 as another point out of the timeout forced the Scotties into their final timeout of the set. Sitting at match point with a 24-22 lead, Cloud County would see the Scotties fend off a point to pull back within one and push CCCC into a timeout of their own to talk things over. It would take all of just one serve out of the timeout to end the match as Broxterman would get a swing off a Highland block attempt to go out of bounds for the point the T-Birds were looking for to avenge an earlier season loss to the Scotties. 

Outdoing her performance from earlier in the day, Martinez would record 18 kills in the match and add two blocks while Broxterman would put up 11 kills on 19 attack attempts to go along with one service ace. Despite just three service aces from the T-Birds in the match, Cloud County would make up for it by recording just two attack errors in the first set and 12 total in the match while turning in one of their most complete performances of the season. 

What's Next?

A return to Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference action for each of their four matches will find the T-Birds in Chanute, Kansas on Monday, October 14th to take on Neosho County Community College at 6:30 p.m. The Panthers are winless in KJCCC action at 0-6 and sit at 12-16 overall heading into Monday night's match.