CONCORDIA, Kan. - Taking on their second of three-consecutive ranked opponents, the Cloud County Community College volleyball team would have an off offensive night in a 3-0 home loss to number-10 ranked Highland Community College inside of Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Thursday, February 4th. 

The loss drops Cloud County to 2-2 overall and 2-2 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while the visiting Scotties improve to 4-1 overall and 3-1 in the KJCCC. 

What started out as an ideal opening to the match would quickly turn south as CCCC would jump out to a 4-1 lead before seeing HCC go on a 9-1 run to jump out to a 9-5 lead that would eventually grow to 15-10. The Scotties would then score three of the next four points to force a T-Bird timeout as CCCC would be out of sorts on the offensive end. Regrouping following the timeout, Cloud County would battle their way back with five of the next eight points to force a Highland timeout and eventually close to within two at 22-20 as the T-Birds would look to rally for a set one win. The Scotties would manage to close out the set by scoring three of the final four points however as Highland would take a 25-21 set victory and kill off the momentum that was building for CCCC. 

In the second set, Cloud County would split the first six points with Highland before allowing the Scotties to go on a 4-0 run to grab the lead and eventually force a T-Bird timeout at 16-11. Once again, the chance to discuss and regroup would seem to work for CCCC as Cloud County would go on to score six of the next eight to pull within a single point at 18-17 and force a Highland timeout before heading to the final stages of the set. Another strong closeout by the Scotties would prove to be to the detriment of the T-Birds however as CCCC would be able to get no closer than four in the final eight points of the set as HCC would score a 25-20 set two victory. 

Facing a must-win situation, Cloud County would fall behind 7-3 in the early stages of the third before getting back-to-back kills from Delaney Herold and Natasha Dooley to pull within one at 10-9 and force a Highland timeout. Keeping within striking distance, the T-Birds would manage to take advantage of an HCC attack error to tie the set up at 15-15 and again at 17-17 as Geraldyn Palacios would begin to take over on Cloud County's side of the net. After giving up two straight points to the Scotties, Palacios would again bring CCCC back to tie things at 19-all before battling their way to tieing things up at 23-23 on a Herold kill. The T-Birds would then manage to send things to a set point at 24-23, but it would be Highland who would find a way once more to score four of the final five points of the match to go on and win 27-25 in extra points to end the match. 

Defensively Cloud County would get a team-high 26 digs from Linnea Mowry as the freshman would also add two sets assists in the match. Jaycee Burghart would provide 29 set assists in the game while Lizzy Pfortmiller, Herold, and Dooley each recorded one service ace. 

What's Next?

Cloud County will travel to number-seven ranked Johnson County on Saturday, February 6th for an early 11 a.m. first-serve match. The Cavaliers remained unbeaten Thursday night by taking a 3-0 road sweep over Hesston College to move to 4-0 overall and 3-0 in the KJCCC as one of two remaining unbeaten teams in conference play.