CONCORDIA, Kan. – Having won their past four matches inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium, the Cloud County Community College volleyball team would be unable to extend their streak to a fifth game as visiting Garden City Community College would take a 25-20, 25-19, 25-17 decision on Wednesday, October 11th.
The loss drops Cloud County to 19-8 overall and 5-6 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while the Broncbusters sweep the regular season series from the T-Birds while improving to 17-9 overall and 7-5 in the KJCCC.
After allowing the first three points of the match to fall in favor of GCCC, the T-Birds would get on the board with a
Bradie Medina kill before going on to score five of the next six points with three consecutive service aces from
Emery May giving CCCC a 6-4 lead after 10 points of action. Trading the next five points back and forth, Garden City would pull things back even at 8-8 but would be unable to reclaim the lead as Cloud County would have a response following ties at 8-8, 9-9, and 10-10. Following the T-Birds taking an 11-10 advantage, the Boncbusters would reel off six straight points to go up by a score of 16-11 as momentum would shift in favor of GCCC to build the five-point advantage. Slowing things by getting back-to-back kills from
Jacey Schurle, Cloud County would pull back within three at 16-13 before seeing a 4-0 rally from Garden City push the lead out to seven at 20-13 as GCCC would continue to hold control of the action. Responding by scoring four of the next five points to get back within four at 21-17, CCCC would get no closer the rest of the way as the final seven points would be traded back and forth to allow the Broncbusters to take a five-point opening set win.
Another slow start by Cloud County in the second set would see GCCC get out to a 4-2 lead as two attack errors from the T-Birds would help the Broncbusters double up the score before scoring seven of the next eight to go up 11-3. Risking the set getting away from them just as quickly as it started, Cloud County would look to respond by scoring five of the next seven points to cut the eight-point deficit down to five at 13-8 until a 3-1 spurt from Garden City would send things back to a seven-point margin at 16-9. Another push from Cloud County would come three points later as a Medina kill would spark a 5-1 run that would get the T-Birds within three at 18-15, but the Broncbusters would have a response of their own by scoring the next four as part of a 6-1 run that would help finish out what would become a 25-19 win.
Facing an 2-0 hole at home for just the second time this season, Cloud County would continue to struggle in the early stages of the third set as a 5-2 deficit would quickly grow to 10-4 as Garden City would be seemingly getting to every ball and finding open spots in the T-Bird defense. Following a timeout from CCCC, Garden City would continue to add to their lead by scoring six of the next eight points to go up 16-7 as the Broncbusters would be beginning to put an end to the match with the large advantage. Unable to string together more than two points at a time, Cloud County would see the deficit eventually reach double-digits at 22-11 before putting together a 5-0 run to force a Garden City timeout while trying to make a last-gasp comeback. The timeout would be just what Garden City needed however as the Broncbusters would respond by scoring three of the final four points to close out the match officially and earn their seventh sweep of the year.
Issues all around would see Cloud County give up 23 free points between attack errors and service errors while also getting outscored 11-7 in service aces as the T-Birds would be limited to a .102 attack percentage in the match. Garden City meanwhile would hit .238 as a team and record 37 kills to the 27 put up by CCCC to make up for an 8-3 deficit in blocks.
Individually, Cloud County would be led by a nine-kill effort from Medina as the Holdredge, Nebraska native would also a team-best 11 digs and have three assisted blocks. No other T-Bird would have more than five kills in the match as
Katelynn Brogan would be the team leader in assists (12) while
Emery May led CCCC in service aces (four). Two different players for Garden City would finish with a match-high 11 kills (Pinaar Dugeroglu, Jelena Milovanovic) to lead the way for the Broncbusters offensively.
What's Next?
The final two non-conference matches of the year await Cloud County as CCCC will host a triangular on Friday, October 13th beginning at 1 PM. Joining the T-Birds in the triangular will be NJCAA Division II 15th ranked Central Community College as Cloud County will take on the Raiders at 1 PM before seeing Central take on NJCAA Division II number two ranked and undefeated Cowley Community College at 3 PM. The final match of the day will pit the currently 25-0 Tigers against the T-Birds beginning at 5 PM.
