CONCORDIA, Kan. – On a day in which six sophomores would take part in their final home match of their careers, the number 16-ranked Cloud County Community College volleyball team would be upended by McCook Community College in five sets inside of Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Saturday, November 2nd.

CCCC ends the regular-season with a 23-8 overall record while the Indians pick up their second consecutive upset to end the season by winning four of their final five games to improve to 23-10 overall.

A slow start by the T-Birds would find Cloud County in a 6-3 hole early on before finally coming together to put up an 8-0 run that would give them the lead at 11-7. After seeing McCook respond with three out of the next four points, it would be more of the same from the T-Birds as CCCC would start to pull away and go up 21-17 before taking three of the next four points and ending the set on a Haven Hamilton kill to win 25-19.

It would be a similar start for McCook in the second set as the Indians would go up 9-4 early on to force a Cloud County timeout with the T-Birds once again starting slow to open the set. Cloud County would eventually manage to pull within four at 15-11, but that would be all the closer that they would get as MCC would push their lead back out to seven at 18-11 en route to a 25-17 set victory to tie the match at 1-1.

In what would become a wild third set, things would stay neck and neck throughout the early portion of the set with neither team being able to take more than a two point lead in the opening 15 points. Holding an 11-7 lead, Cloud County would score six of the next nine points to force an Indian timeout which would prove to be much needed for McCook as MCC would use the timeout to spark a 7-1 run to tie things up at 18-18. The two teams would then trade the next several points as the lead would be just a single point until the very end of the set as the T-Birds would find a way to score the final three points of the set to win 25-22 and go up 2-1 in the match.

Returning the favor in the fourth set, McCook would slowly manage to build a three point lead at 9-6 as Cloud County would battle their way back to tie things up at 15-15 midway through. Three of the next four points however would fall for MCCC, giving the Indians some breathing room heading into the final stretch of the fourth. The slim lead for McCook would drop back down to a single point one last time at 23-22 as the T-Birds would make one final push to try and mount a comeback, but back-to-back points by the Indians would send things to a deciding fifth set thanks in part to a 25-22 victory for McCook.

After trading points to open the final set, McCook would make a run by scoring three of the next four points to go up 4-2 and break things open by scoring four of the next five as the teams would switch sides with Cloud County trailing 8-3. Things would get no closer for the T-Birds as McCook would prove to be too much in the end with MCC winning the set 15-8 to pull out the come-from-behind victory.

Cloud County would get a team-best 20 kills from Dayana Chara while Geraldyn Palacios added 13 kills and four total blocks. Riley Bontrager assisted on 48 out of CCCC's 52 total assists while Madi Spencer would finish with a career-best 29 digs in the match.

What's Next?

Cloud County has qualified for the 2019 NJCAA Division II Plains District B Tournament which will be hosted on the campus of Fort Scott Community College. The T-Birds will enter as the number seven seed and take on host Fort Scott at 11 a.m. on Saturday, November 9th with the winner playing in the District title game later that day against either Highland or Northeast Oklahoma A&M. If Cloud County were to win the district, then would then advance to the NJCAA Division II National Tournament which is being held in Charleston, West Virginia November 21-23.