ARKANSAS CITY, Kan. – Living up to the hype of two top-15 ranked teams squaring off against each other, the number 13-ranked Cloud County Community College volleyball team rallied back from a 2-0 hole before ultimately falling in five sets at number 11-ranked Cowley Community College at the W.S. Scott Auditorium in Arkansas City, Kansas on Wednesday, September 11th.

Playing just their second five-set match of the season, CCCC is now 10-1 overall and 1-1 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference after dropping their first match of the year. Cowley improved to 8-2 overall and 2-1 in the KJCCC after taking the only scheduled meeting of the year between the T-Birds and Tigers.

A back and forth first set would see Cloud County jump out to a lead midway through the first set but see Cowley battle back and force the set to go into extra points. In the overtime portion of the set, it would be Cowley who would manage to pull away with two straight points and take an early 1-0 lead after a 27-25 win.

The momentum gained from a first set rally would prove to play into the favor of Cowley as the Tigers would jump out from the start of set two and not look back as Cloud County never could find a way to make things interesting while eventually falling by a score of 25-14.

Needing to win the third set to keep the match going, CCCC made sure that things would not end in three sets as the T-Birds maintained a slim lead throughout before eventually pulling away for a 25-20 victory. With a set victory under them, Cloud County would continue to play with determination and focus to take the fourth set by a score of 25-22 to tie things at 2-2 and force a winner-take-all fifth set.

In the final set of the match, Cloud County would jump out to an early lead to force a Cowley timeout before seeing the Tigers battle back and tie things up midway through the set. It would appear as though the Tigers would pull away with the libero at the service line, but the T-Birds would refuse to go down without a fight as extra points would be needed once again to determine the set. In similar fashion to the first set however, it would be Cowley who would be able to use the advantage of their home crowd and feed off the energy to string together a pair of points when they were needed most as CCCC would fall in a road thriller while validating their top-15 status.

A monster match would be had by sophomore Dayana Chara as the sophomore would record 25 kills in the match to go along with 15 digs. The T-Birds would also get double-doubles from Riley Bontrager (56 assists, 13 digs) and Emelys Martinez (18 kills, 21 digs) as all three would have career nights. The difference in the match would be the limited amount of service aces (three) and blocks for Cloud County (five) as both numbers would be under their season average and have a big effect on the outcome.

What's Next?

Cloud County will look to bounce back on Friday, September 13th when they play host to Bethany College JV and Hesston College for a triangular beginning at 3 p.m. The T-Birds and Swedes will face off at 3 p.m. followed by Bethany JV and Hesston playing at 5 p.m. CCCC will then return for the nightcap against Hesston beginning at 7 p.m. to close out their action for the week.