CONCORDIA, Kan. – Cruising to a quick sweep in their first match of the day against Labette, the Cloud County Community College volleyball team would need all five sets in a comeback effort to down Central Community College and finish the day 2-0 inside of Arley Bryant Gymnasium in Concordia, Kansas on Saturday, February 27th.

Winning five of their last six matches, Cloud County is now 7-5 overall and 6-5 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while the Cardinals drop both matches that they took part in today to fall to 1-10 overall and 1-9 in the KJCCC. Central would end up splitting their matches by beating Labette in four sets before the nightcap loss to fall to 7-10 on the year.

Against Labette:

Things would be much smoother sailing against the Cardinals in comparison to the first meeting of the season as CCCC would take the match in straight sets by scores of 25-17, 25-21, and 25-19. Finishing with a match-best 14 kills in the match would be Geraldyn Palacios as the sophomore would also have three assisted blocks in the match.

Also providing some offense to the T-Bird attack would be Natasha Dooley and Delaney Herold as the pair would each record seven kills with three each coming in the opening set. Other key statistics for Cloud County in their match with Labette would see sophomore Jaycee Burghart put up a team-high 30 assists to go along with three service aces while Herold picked up 13 digs.

Against Central:

The near three-hour layoff that Cloud County would have to endure between matches would make its presence known early on as the T-Birds would struggle to get any separation from the Raiders throughout the first 17 points of the set before finally managing to get on a run and take a 14-9 lead to force a CCC timeout. As the rest of the opening set would play out, the T-Birds would manage to keep Central from closing the gap to force another timeout at 22-17 before managing to earn a 25-18 set victory and take a 1-0 match lead heading to the second.

Things wouldn't go as smooth for CCCC in the second or the third sets as Central would respond with a pair of set victories by scores of 25-23 and 25-19 as early leads for the Raiders in both sets would dig holes for the T-Birds that they never would be able to get back out of.

Down 2-1 in the match, Cloud County would come out with a renewed focus in the fourth as CCCC would be able to avoid an early deficit and keep things tied up at 14-14 mid-way through the set. Things wouldn't get any easier down the stretch as both teams would stay neck-and-neck with each other before seeing Cloud County force a timeout by Central at 23-22 before going on to score the next two points and take a 25-22 set victory and stay alive.

The fourth-set win would appear to energize CCCC as the T-Birds would again come out to start the set by keeping the pace with the Raiders before grabbing an 8-6 lead to force Central to use their first timeout of the set. Central would manage to come back and tie things up in the set before seeing Cloud County with back-to-back points to go up 12-10 as momentum would shift all the way towards the T-Birds heading into crunch time. Despite another timeout from the Raiders to try and break the rally, Cloud County would go on to score the final three points to end the match on a 5-0 run and scrape out a 3-2 victory to win in their first non-conference match of the year.

Both Palacios and Herold would carry Cloud County offensively as the pair would finish with 16 kills each while Herold would finish with 15 digs to record her second double-double of the day. Dooley would finish with a new career-high in digs with a team-best 28 on the evening while Burghart would finish with 41 set assists and two service aces.

What's Next?

The T-Birds will look to keep things rolling with a Monday night road trip to Arkansas City to take on Cowley Community College at 6:30 PM. Cowley has won just two of their past seven KJCCC contests following the loss to Cloud County back on February 1st and will enter Monday's rematch with a 6-7 overall record.