PRATT, Kan. – After holding off a late rally in the opening set of the day, the Cloud County Community College volleyball team would be able to mount a pair of late-set rallies to make it a 3-0 sweep of Pratt Community College inside the Beaver Dome on Saturday, September 25th.
Picking up their first Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference win of the year, the T-Birds are now 9-9 overall and 1-6 in conference play while the Beavers have lost five of their past six matches to fall to 7-13 overall and 0-6 in KJCCC action.
Jumping out to a five-point lead to go up 17-12 midway through the opening set, Cloud County would be forced to try and fend off a Pratt rally that would see the Beavers get back within two at 19-17 and then down to a single point at 22-21. Things would remain a one-point set the rest of the way until set point as a kill from
Natasha Dooley would secure a 25-23 opening set victory.
In the second set, host PCC would jump out to a 5-2 lead on CCCC before seeing the T-Birds use a 5-1 run to take their first lead of the set at 7-6. Neither team would be able to grow a lead of larger than three over the course of the next 13 points as the scored would wind up tied up at 13 all heading into the second half of the set. Things wouldn't get any easier over the course of the next nine points for the T-Birds as Pratt would grab the lead and extend it to 19-16 as CCCC would use a timeout to try and stop momentum. The timeout would appear to work as Cloud County would get back to even with the Beavers at 21-21 to force a Pratt timeout and set up another close end to a set. Following two straight points from CCCC out of the timeout to go up 23-21, the Beavers would respond with three straight points of their own to get to set point and force Cloud County to use their final timeout of the set. To close things out, it would be all T-Birds as
Kylie Fuller and Dooley would combine to put down three kills to end the set with CCCC on top by a score of 26-24.
A slow start from Cloud County to open the third would see PCC jump out to an 8-3 lead before a 5-0 run from the T-Birds would tie things up at 8-8 and force a Beaver timeout. Things would once again tighten up from that point forward as CCCC would manage to grab a lead ranging between two and five points before seeing a pesky Pratt squad pull back even at 20-20. The run from Pratt would continue with two more points to see the Beavers go up 22-20 and force Cloud County into a timeout as the T-Birds would once again be in danger of dropping a set despite avoiding unforced errors. Another timeout would be used just two points later as CCCC would tie things back up at 22-22 to force PCC into a timeout of their own as both teams would be left without timeouts for the finish to the set. Following a Cloud County attack error and Pratt service error would keep things tied at 23-23, Dooley would once again play a role in closing out a set as a kill and assisted block along with
Camryn Wessel would close out the match with the T-Birds taking a 25-23 decision for their seventh win of the year in straight sets.
Final stats would see Cloud County record 14 kills on 41 attack attempts in each of the first two sets before putting down another 13 kills in the third set to finish with 41 kills and a .266 attack percentage in the match while committing just 12 attack errors all match. A team-best 13 kills from Dooley would lead the way followed by eight from freshman
Kenzie Cooper as the two would combine for 21 kills compared to just four attack errors and a .309 attack percentage. Dooley would tack on three service aces as the T-Birds would finish the match with 14 service aces and seven blocks.
What's Next?
Three of Cloud County's next four matches will be inside the friendly confines of Arley Bryant Gymnasium beginning on Monday, September 27th when the T-Birds host the Nebraska-Kearney JV team for their first of two matches against the Lopers in a 10-day span. CCCC will make a return trip to Kearney on Wednesday, October 6th to finish out the home-and-home season series.
