GARDEN CITY, Kan. – Trailing 2-0 in the match after a 25-23, and 25-20 set loss, the Cloud County Community College volleyball team would be successful in making their first five-set comeback of the season by winning the final three sets over Garden City by scores of 25-22, 25-19, and 18-16 inside of Conestoga Arena in Garden City, Kansas on Wednesday, October 13th.
A third-straight victory by the T-Birds allows Cloud County to move to 14-12 overall and 4-8 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while Garden City falls to 8-20 and 1-10 in the KJCCC after dropping their second straight match in three days to CCCC.
Wednesday's match would get started with a nearly identical open as the match played just 48 hours prior between the two teams as things would stay a two-point contest throughout the opening 20-plus points of the set until Garden City would go on a run to grab a 13-10 lead. Cloud County would then turn the three-point deficit into a lead by using a 4-0 run to force the Broncbusters into a timeout as the run would extend to 5-0 out of the timeout to make it 18-16 CCCC before seeing Garden City end the rally to pull back within one. The next four points of the set would then be traded between squads until back-to-back points from GCCC to tie things at 20-20 as things would become tied once more at 21-21. A net error from the T-Birds would then allow Garden City to take the lead for good as the Broncbusters would turn a 23-21 lead into a 25-23 set victory to take their first set victory of the year from CCCC.
The early going of the second set would again be tightly contested with Cloud County managing to take their largest lead of the set at 11-8. CCCC would match their set-high three-point lead at 13-10 and 15-12 before seeing Garden City use a 5-1 run to claim the lead at 17-16 to force a T-Bird timeout. With momentum flipped in favor of GCCC, the Broncbusters would continue their run throughout the rest of the set to pull away and win by five as Cloud County would look out of sorts through two sets.
Wanting to avoid a match sweep, the T-Birds would come out firing offensively in the third set by scoring eight of the first 10 points to force a GCCC timeout before seeing the Broncbusters battle their way back to within two at 11-9. CCCC would push their lead back out to four at 14-10 and 15-11, but Garden City would have another rally that would manage to tie things at 16-16 to set up for a close end to the set.
Geraldyn Palacios and
Kenzie Cooper would combine on a block to give Cloud County some breathing room once more at 18-16 as the T-Birds would start to put some room between them and the Broncbusters on their way to taking a 23-20 lead. After both teams would commit an attack error to make it 24-21, Garden City would get a kill to pull back within two, but Cooper would have the answer to put down a kill to end the set as CCCC would get on the board with a 25-22 set win.
Splitting the first eight points of the first set, a run would finally be put together in the fourth to break a 4-4 tie as GCCC would string together four straight points to jump out to an early lead before seeing CCCC tie things right back up at 7-7. Following ties at 8-8, and 9-9, Cloud County would get back-to-back points to go up briefly before yet another tie at 12-12 on a Broncbuster service ace. One final tie in the set would be had at 16-16 as the T-Birds would score three of the next four points as part of a 6-2 run to go up 19-15 and eventually 21-16 to force a Garden City timeout. The Broncbusters would then call their final timeout of the set at 23-16 as CCCC would be on the brink of forcing a winner-take-all fifth set on their way to a 25-19 set victory.
A slow start by Cloud County to open the fifth set would allow Garden City to score the opening two points of the set before getting on the board with a
Lakyn Tenbrink kill to spark a 3-1 run to tie things at 3-3. CCCC's first lead would come on the following point with a setter kill from
Kylie Fuller as the T-Birds would use another 3-1 run to go up 6-4. Things would tighten up once again however as a determined Garden City squad would get back to even at 8-8 before splitting the next 12 points that would send things to extra points tied at 14-14. CCCC would manage to re-take the lead at 15-14 by using an overpass kill from
Natasha Dooley to force Garden City to use their first of two timeouts as the T-Birds would have match point out of the timeout. The Broncbusters would manage to fight off match point to continue play and score a second-straight point to get a match-point of their own before a GCCC service error would tie things up one final time. Taking advantage of a Garden City attack error to go back up by a score of 17-16, Cloud County would end the match on the next rally with a kill from Tenbrink as the T-Birds would find a way to earn their third KJCCC victory in five days.
Four players would find themselves in double-figure kills on the night for CCCC as Cooper would lead the T-Birds with 13 kills while Palacios and Tenbrink would each finish with 12. Joining the trio in double-digits would be Dooley with 10 kills while Fuller would have a team-best 27 set assists.
What's Next?
Cloud County will be back on the road on Saturday as they will look to keep the late-season momentum rolling when they head to Colby for a 2 p.m. matchup with the Trojans. Colby dropped a four-set decision at Hutchinson on Wednesday night and has lost three of their past four matches to sit at 13-11 overall and 6-6 in Jayhawk Conference action heading into Saturday.
