GREAT BEND, Kan. – Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference action would continue for the Cloud County Community College volleyball team on Wednesday night with a 3-1 road defeat at the hands of Barton Community College inside the Kirkman Activity Center in Great Bend, Kansas on September 29th.
Dropping a match for the first time in their past three outings, Cloud County is now 10-10 overall and 1-7 in the KJCCC while Barton improves to 15-8 overall and stays just one game back of Jayhawk Conference leading Butler at 6-1 in the KJCCC.
After keeping things close to open the first set by trading the first 10 points of the match, CCCC would see BCCC go on a 7-1 run to double up the T-Birds at 12-6 before coming back with a 5-1 run of their own to get back within two at 13-11 and force a Cougar timeout. Barton would have a response by going a 4-0 run to push their lead back out to six at 17-11 as Cloud County would be unable to close the gap down the stretch with the Cougars ending the set on a 5-1 run to win by a score of 25-16.
Looking to even the score up in the second set, CCCC would use a 4-1 run to open the set to jump out to an early lead that would allow the T-Birds to hold a lead of 11-6 until three straight points from the Cougars would make it 11-9 in favor of Cloud County. Things would remain a two-point set at 14-12 before getting knotted up at 16-16 as the T-Birds would use their first timeout of the set to try and stop a shift in momentum to Barton. Back-to-back attack errors for Cloud County would allow BCCC to grab their first lead of the set at 19-17 as the Cougar lead would eventually grow to three at 24-21. A late rally from the T-Birds however would see Cloud County fend off three-straight set points to tie the score up at 24-24 before ending what would become a 5-0 run to finish the set and steal the second set from Barton by a score of 26-24.
Cloud County would then jump out to an early 8-6 lead on Barton to open the third before seeing the Cougars rattle off six straight points go up by a score of 12-8 and force CCCC into a timeout. The T-
Birds would then see Barton use a 4-1 run to turn a 14-11 score into an 18-12 lead as the Cougars would seemingly have an answer for every Cloud County point. Despite fending off a pair of set points to try and mount a late rally, the T-Birds would eventually run out of chances as Barton would finish off the set with a kill to take a 25-17 decision and go back up in the match by a score of 2-1.
Unable to put together an early run in the fourth, Cloud County would see Barton jump out to an 8-3 lead that would quickly turn into a 16-9 advantage as CCCC would wind up using both of their two timeouts in the set early on to try anything they could to stay in the set. A response would finally be found from the T-Birds by scoring four of the next five points to pull back within five at 18-13 before continuing to close the gap by stringing together a run of four straight points to force a Barton timeout despite trailing 21-17. From that point forward however, it would be all Cougars as BCCC would manage to close out the match by taking the fourth set 25-19 to sweep the season series from CCCC.
Cloud County's lone player in double-figure kills on the night was
Natasha Dooley who would finish with 11 kills while freshman
Kenzie Cooper would finish one kill shy of double-digits with nine. Recording a double-double with 19 set assists and 12 digs would be
Kylie Fuller alongside
Mariah Janda who would finish with 10 set assists and 13 digs. Defensively, CCCC's lone solo block would come from
Lakyn Tenbrink while sophomore
Geraldyn Palacios would assist on six of nine total blocks.
What's Next?
Cloud County will host the first of their two home triangulars on Saturday as both Hutchinson and Highland will make their way to Arley Bryant Gymnasium. Things will kick off with the T-Birds and Blue Dragons squaring off at 2 p.m. in a KJCCC matchup while Highland will join the action at 4 p.m. to take on Hutchinson. The 6 p.m. nightcap will feature Cloud County taking on the Scotties in non-conference action for the second time this season following a five-set thriller over in Highland back on August 27th.
