BEATRICE, Neb. – Six sets over the course of two matches is all that was needed by the Cloud County Community College volleyball team to take down Coffeyville Community College and Northeast Community College in a pair of matches at the RKP Invitational inside the Truman Center in Beatrice, Nebraska on Saturday, August 21st.
With opening weekend of action complete for the T-Birds, CCCC improves to 3-1 overall with all three victories coming in straight sets. Cloud County's win over Coffeyville is their fifth in the past seven matches with the Red Ravens and third-straight while the victory over the Hawks evens the series at three matches apiece dating back to 2013.
Against Coffeyville:
Tightly contested sets wouldn't keep the T-Birds from earning a sweep against a conference foe as CCCC would manage to pull out a pair of 25-23 victories in each of the first two sets before taking a 25-22 set three victory to get back in the win column and pick up their second win of the season.
Despite an off day offensively that saw Cloud County hit .181 for the match, the T-Birds would manage to record 10 blocks include six assisted blocks from sophomore
Geraldyn Palacios and five assisted blocks from freshman
Hollie Stewart. Six service aces would also prove to be to the benefit of CCCC as
Mariah Janda would record three of the six to go along with seven digs. In the offensive categories,
Natasha Dooley would be the lone player for Cloud County to reach double-figures in kills with 14 while Palacios and Stewart would each record nine kills.
Against Northeast:
A tight turnaround would see the T-Birds play their first back-to-back matches of the year while taking on a Northeast squad that had already faced three Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference teams on the weekend. Extra points would be needed in the opening set of the match as CCCC would find a way to come away with a 27-25 set victory to set the tone as the T-Birds would then go on to finish off the NECC with set wins by scores of 25-16 and 25-19.
The offensive struggles that were seen in the first match of the day would not be the case in the weekend finale for Cloud County as the T-Birds would record a .320 attack percentage by finishing with 45 kills and just 13 attack errors on 100 total attempts. Both
Lakyn Tenbrink and
Kenzie Cooper would lead the way with 12 kills apiece as Tenbrink would hit a season-best .524 for the match as five different players would have at least four kills.
26 set assists from freshman
Kylie Fuller would lead CCCC to finish the weekend averaging just under 29 assists per match while leading Cloud County in three of their four matches. Three different players would reach double digits in digs for the T-Birds including a team-high 18 from
Michaela Bowers and 14 from Cooper who recorded her first collegiate double-double.
What's Next?
The home opener for CCCC will also serve as the KJCCC opener for Cloud County as the T-Birds will welcome in undefeated and number 12-ranked Barton Community
College to Arley Bryant Gymnasium for a 6:30 PM first serve on Wednesday, August 25th. Barton went 3-0 this past weekend in Trinidad, Colorado to open the season and are coming off their 21st NJCAA National Tournament appearance after going 25-6 last season and securing the NJCAA Region VI Tournament Title.
