BEATRICE, Neb. – Coming out strong to earn a three-set sweep of Hesston College in their season opening match, the Cloud County Community College volleyball team would see North Platte Community College hand the T-Birds a five-set loss to finish the day by splitting a pair of matches at the RKP Invitational held inside the Truman Center on the campus of Southeast Community College in Beatrice, Nebraska on Friday, August 20th.
 
Winning their sixth season opener in the past seven seasons, Cloud County has now won five straight matches against the Larks dating back to the 2019 season. North Platte has now won four straight matches against CCCC dating back to the 2016 season as both the T-Birds and Knights end day one of the two-day tournament by going 1-1.

Against Hesston:
Winning by scores of 25-8, 25-16, and 25-19, CCCC would have little trouble in their season opener with the Larks as the T-Birds would finish the match with 34 kills and record a .282 attack percentage as a team. Leading the way offensively would be sophomore Geraldyn Palacios and freshman Natasha Dooley while Lakyn Tenbrink would record three kills in both the second and third sets to finish with six. Palacios would go on to add four blocks (three solo blocks) as part of a five-block effort from Cloud County with Tenbrink and Camryn Wessel each recording one block.
 
Other statistical leaders for CCCC in their match with Hesston would include a team-best 15 set assists from freshman Sydney Kunnemann while Michaela Bowers would record 23 digs. Dooley would join Bowers in double digits in digs with 10 as 10 different T-Birds would record at least one dig.
 
Against North Platte:
After a slow start that would allow the Knights to take the opening set by a score of 25-18, Cloud County would bounce back in a big way by running away with a 25-10 set two victory. The two teams would then play a marathon third set that would see NPCC fend off four set points before pulling out a 33-31 victory over CCCC as the T-Birds would manage to take the fourth set by a score of 25-18 and force a winner-take-all fifth set. In the match-deciding set, North Platte would manage to score the first four points of the set and never look back as Cloud County would be unable to battle their way back in what would ultimately become a 15-6 set loss.
 
Getting out to a strong start offensively in the opening set, freshman Hollie Stewart would record five of her team-best 19 kills in the match in the opening set as the Wichita, Kansas native would also record eight kills in the third set and have a .359 attack percentage in the match. Joining Stewart in double-figure kills would be Dooley with 14 kills and Tenbrink with 13 kills as the trio would account for 46 of Cloud County's 55 kills in the match.
 
Six block errors and four service errors would ultimately prove costly as the T-Birds would manage to record five solo blocks including two from Lisette Pfortmiller. Other defensive leaders for CCCC saw Bowers record 31 digs include 10 in the third set and eight in the fourth set while Maria Janda and Kylie Fuller each had 15 digs.
 
What's Next?
Opening weekend of play for the T-Bird volleyball team will conclude beginning at 3 p.m. as Cloud County will take on Coffeyville in their first of two matches on day two of the RKP Invitational. The fourth and final match of the weekend for CCCC will see the T-Birds take on the Hawks of Northeast Community College at 5 p.m. in what will be one of the final matches of the two-day tournament.