CONCORDIA, Kan. – A battle of top-10 teams that both went to a deciding fifth set and down to the wire, the number 10 ranked Cloud County Community College volleyball team would be outlasted 3-2 by number five ranked Fort Scott Community College in Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference action inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Wednesday, October 16th.

Suffering just their second home defeat of the year, Cloud County is now 21-6 overall and 4-4 in the KJCCC while the Greyhounds improved to 27-4 overall and 8-1 in conference action.

To open the match, CCCC and FSCC would trade the first eight points before seeing the Greyhounds use a 3-1 run to take a 7-5 advantage. Fort Scott would be able to hold their lead until Cloud County would go on a 7-4 run to tie things at 19-19 and force a timeout from the Greyhounds as the T-Birds would take the lead at 20-19. Back-to-back points from Fort Scott would give the Greyhounds the lead once again as FSCC would manage to pull out a 25-23 victory to grab an early lead in the match over the T-Birds.

A big response from Cloud County in the second set would see CCCC score the first five points of the set before seeing the Greyhounds use a 5-1 run to cut the lead down to a single point at 6-5. Cloud County would then respond with a 5-1 run of their own to go up 11-6 as CCCC would double up FSCC at 14-7. Fort Scott would then use a 4-0 run before a service error would end the rally and keep CCCC on top by a score of 15-11 as the Greyhounds would get no closer with the T-Birds ending the set by taking 10 of the final 14 points to win the set 25-15 and even things at one set each.

Following a 3-0 start to the third set by Cloud County, Fort Scott would battle back to tie things at 4-4 and take an 8-5 lead which would force CCCC to use one of their two timeouts in the set. The lead would slowly grow for FSCC as Cloud County would be unable to find a much-needed rally in the set as the Greyhounds would take leads of 14-8 and 19-12 before closing out the set to take a 25-19 victory and go up 2-1 on the T-Birds.

It would be all Cloud County to open the fourth set as the first six points of the set would go to CCCC to force a Greyhound timeout as Cloud County would hold leads of 6-0, 7-2, and 8-4 in the early going. After seeing Fort Scott battle back to 10-7, CCCC would push their lead back open some more with a small run to go up 17-11 as the Greyhounds would get no closer with the T-Birds taking a 25-19 victory to force a winner-take-all fifth set to the match.

Back and forth things would go in the fifth set as the first six points would be traded before seeing Cloud County go up 5-3 as part of a 3-0 run that gave the T-Birds their first lead of the set. The changeover would happen with CCCC holding a slim 8-6 lead as the lead would remain with Cloud County until seeing FSCC tie things at 12-12 as the Greyhounds would reclaim the lead at 14-13 and get the first shot at match point. A service error would ensure extra points would be needed to win the match, but it would be two consecutive points by Fort Scott to end the match with a 16-14 victory to down CCCC in heartbreaking fashion.

Getting a team-high 21 kills from sophomore Dayana Chara, service errors would be a problem throughout the night for the T-Birds as CCCC committed six in total. Block errors would also be a bit of a problem as 11 blocks by Cloud County would be offset by 10 block errors and three ball handling errors as the offense would never truly be able to fire on all cylinders. Riley Bontrager would lead the T-Birds with 51 assists while Mary Broxterman had 14 kills and four blocks.

What's Next?

 Cloud County will have a full week to sit on things in preparations for their next match, which will take place at Allen County Community College on Wednesday, October 23rd at 6:30 PM. The Red Devils are 17-12 overall and 3-5 in the KJCCC and are coming off back-to-back defeats to number two Coffeyville Community College and number seven Johnson County Community College while also having a week between matches.