CONCORDIA, Kan. – Battling back from a 2-0 deficit heading into the third set, the Cloud County Community College volleyball team would be dealt a heart-breaking five set home loss to Central Community College as the Raiders would fight off seven match points and end the match on a 9-0 run inside of Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Monday, September 20th.
Both the T-Birds and Raiders move to 8-8 on the year as the two squads split their season series with both matches going five sets and the visiting team coming away victorious on both occasions.
Jumping out to an early lead in the opening set of the night, Cloud County would be on the offensive attack in the opening moments of the match as
Lakyn Tenbrink would provide a spark with two of CCCC's first three points to help the T-Birds to a 6-3 lead. Cloud County would then double up Central again at 10-5 to force the Raiders into an early timeout as avoiding unforced errors would be key to the lead for the T-Birds. As the set progressed, Central would chip away at the T-Bird lead little-by-little to tie things up at 19-19. The two teams would then trade the next four points before back-to-back kills from
Geraldyn Palacios would give Cloud County a slim two point lead at 23-21 as Central would call their final timeout of the set. The timeout would not only break the T-Bird rally but give the Raiders some much needed life as the final four points of the set would be scored by Central to claim a 25-23 opening set victory.
There would be no question about the second set as Central would come out firing from the start and jump out to an 11-2 lead with nothing working on either end for Cloud County. Things would not get much better moving forward as the double-digit lead would continue to hold throughout the rest of the set for the Raiders with Central eventually putting away Cloud County with a 25-14 set victory to go up 2-0 on a stunned home crowd.
Needing to find a way to flip momentum back in their favor, Cloud County would grab an early lead in the third before seeing Central manage to tie things up at 5-5 and reclaim the lead at 9-8 and force the T-Birds into a timeout. Following the timeout, Cloud County would manage to battle their way back into the lead at 12-11 and not concede the lead again as the T-Birds would go on a 12-3 run to end the set and get on the board with a 25-15 set victory to stay alive in the match.
Using the momentum from the third set, Cloud County would once again have the crowd back into the match and it would make a difference in the fourth as Tenbrink and Palacios would do whatever they could to keep the T-Birds in the match. Trailing 10-9, Cloud County would score three straight points to reclaim the lead before seeing Central tie things up at 12-12 and set up for what appeared to be an exciting end to the set. With things still tied two points later, Cloud County would go on 5-1 run to open up an 18-14 lead and force the Raiders into a timeout as some breathing room would finally be had by the T-Birds. Down the stretch, Cloud County would score four of the next six points to extend their lead to six at 22-16 as the lead would manage to hold and allow CCCC to win 25-18 and force a fifth set.
In the fifth, Cloud County would score four of the opening five points of the set as there would be no shortage of excitement from both the crowd and T-Bird bench to push CCCC out to a 10-4 lead. With Central having used both of their timeouts, Cloud County would extend their lead to seven at 14-7 following a
Cadence Nondorf kill and be just a point away from completing a five-set comeback. Central would not go away quietly however as an attack error, block, and service ace would give the Raiders life and force Cloud County to use a timeout to stop what appeared to be shifting momentum. The timeout would not be of use however as Central would continue their run to fight off seven consecutive match points to tie things up at 14-14 before taking advantage of two final Cloud County errors to end the match on a 9-0 run and win 16-14 to stun the T-Birds.
What's Next?
Cloud County will be back home on Wednesday evening to play host to number-seven nationally ranked Butler Community College in Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference play at 6:30 PM. The Grizzlies are 17-2 overall this season and a perfect 3-0 in conference play. Riding a 13-match winning streak, Butler has dropped only two sets since their last defeat on August 27th, with both sets coming to previous number-one ranked and defending National Champion Iowa Western this past weekend.
