CONCORDIA, Kan. – With two matches on the day, the Cloud County Community College volleyball team would fall for the second-time this season in five sets to Hutchinson Community College before bouncing back in a big way to avenge an earlier season loss by sweeping Highland Community College to split a home triangular inside of Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Saturday, October 2nd.
 
Cloud County remains at .500 on the year while now sitting at 11-11 overall while Hutchinson improved to 13-9 overall after winning both of their matches on Saturday afternoon. The two losses for Highland were just their second and third losses of the year as the T-Birds would become the first team this season to hand the Scotties a three-set loss with HCC now 20-3 overall.
 
Against Hutchinson:
Early nerves would be present from the T-Birds as HCC would jump out to a 5-2 lead on CCCC while taking advantage of two service aces and a Cloud County attack error to grab a quick three-point lead. The T-Birds would then go on a 6-2 run which included a pair of Natasha Dooley kills to grab their first lead of the match at 8-7 but would see Hutchinson have a quick answer with four-straight points to go back up by a score of 11-8. HCC would then take their largest lead of the opening set at 16-10 following a pair of CCCC attack errors, but the T-Birds would wake up in a big way by 6-1 run to pull back within one at 17-16 and eventually manage to tie things up at 20-20 an another kill from Dooley. Camryn Wessel would then put Cloud County up by a point as CCCC would close out the opening set with the final four points as part of a 9-2 run to take a 25-21 opening set victory.
 
Momentum from the end of the first set would carry over into the second as the T-Birds would return the favor from the opener by jumping out to a 4-1 lead that would force the Blue Dragons into a quick timeout. Things would then tighten up as HCC would tie things at 6-6 before seeing Cloud County score the next three as part of a 5-2 run that would push the T-Bird lead back out three at 11-8. Hutch would then manage to battle back to tie things up one final time in the set at 13-13, but CCCC would have enough offense to maintain just enough of a lead the rest of the way as the T-Birds would grab a 25-23 set victory to go up 2-0.
 
Another closely contested set in the third would see a 6-2 Cloud County lead get erased by a 9-3 Hutchinson run that would give the Blue Dragons an 11-9 lead to force a T-Bird timeout. Neither team would be able to find a lead of more than two points from that point forward as a back-and-forth set would come down to the wire after being tied at every two points from 16-16 up until 19-19. Cloud County would then get a service ace and kill to grab a 21-19 lead, but it would all be for not as Hutchinson would find a way late with four kills and a service ace to keep the T-Birds from a sweep by winning 25-23.
 
A letdown set from not getting the sweep would be in effect for the fourth for CCCC as the T-Birds would fall into an 8-4 hole early on and never be able to recover as the Blue Dragon lead would grow to 14-7 midway through the set. Hutchinson would eventually extend their lead to double-digits towards the tail end of the set at 24-14 as a fifth-set would be necessary following a 25-16 HCC victory.
 
A winner-take-all fifth set would get off to about as bad of start as Cloud County could have imagined as Hutchinson would jump out to a 6-1 lead and completely take the air of the home crowd behind the T-Birds. CCCC would then use a 6-1 run to try and get the crowd back behind them by pulling even with the Blue Dragons at 7-7 before eventually taking the lead for the first time in the set at 9-8. Hutchinson would then go on a 7-0 run that would wind up closing out the match as the T-Birds would have another win pulled out from under them with HCC winning the fifth set 15-9 to win their second five set match over Cloud County this year.
 
A team-best 15 kills from Dooley would be complimented by 12 digs and three assisted blocks for the Garden Plain, Kansas native while Geraldyn Palacios and Kenzie Cooper would each record 12 kills. Mariah Janda would have a team-high 25 set assists alongside 23 from Kylie Fuller while Wessel would have a game-high three service aces.  
 
Against Highland:
Cloud County would avoid a slow start against the Scotties as a 2-2 tie would turn into an 8-3 CCCC lead following a 6-1 T-Bird run to force a Highland timeout. Keeping their foot on the pedal, the T-Birds would extend their lead to eight at 13-5 and manage to see their lead never fall below four points until 5-2 run by Highland late would pull the Scotties within three at 22-19. Determined to not let an opening set win slip away, Cloud County would get a kill from Cooper along with a Highland attack error and Zoe Bechard service ace off the tape to close out the set with three straight points to take a 25-19 opening set victory.
 
A similar start to the second-set would see the T-Birds get off to a 5-1 lead but the Scotties would manage to have a response by going on a 5-0 run and take the lead at 6-5. Trading the next two points, Cloud County would then go on to score five of the next seven points to hold an 11-9 lead off of back-to-back Highland attack errors as neither team would be able to get out to a big lead. Things would remain a two-point lead in favor of CCCC after the next six points of the set would be traded with the T-Birds up 14-12 before going a 3-1 spurt to push their lead to four at 17-13. Cloud County would then finally break things open by using a 5-0 run to go up by eight at 22-14 as Highland would have no answer for Fuller at the service line as CCCC would pull away late for a 25-17 set victory.
 
The first 20 points of the third set would leave both Highland and Cloud County where they started as neither team would be able to string together more than two points at any point early on in the third set. After a Lakyn Tenbrink kill would give CCCC an 11-10 lead, Highland would use a 3-0 run to go up 13-11 before seeing the T-Birds tie things back up at 13-13. The two quick points by Cloud County would be part of a larger 7-1 run that would put the T-Birds up 18-14 and on the verge of putting away the Scotties in straight sets. Highland would not go quietly however as the Scotties would battle back and pull within one at 20-19, but Cloud County would fight back with four straight points courtesy of Fuller at the service line once again as the T-Birds would pull out a five-point set victory to earn the home sweep.
 
Tenbrink (13 kills) and Dooley (11 kills) would carry the load for CCCC in the match as the duo would manage to record 24 of CCCC's 44 kills on the night. The biggest difference in the match would be Cloud County recording seven service aces compared to zero for Highland as the T-Birds would also out block the Scotties by a 10-8 margin. Tenbrink would play a role in six of CCCC's 10 blocks with one solo block and five assisted blocks in the match.
 
What's Next?
The T-Birds will be on the road on Wednesday, October 6th when they travel to Kearney, Nebraska to finish off a home-and-home series with the Nebraska-Kearney JV team at 5 p.m. Cloud County took care of business against the Lopers on September 27th with a 3-0 sweep while winning by scores of 25-19, 25-19, 25-22.