CONCORDIA, Kan. – A Friday the 13th home doubleheader would turn into a house of horrors for the Cloud County Community College volleyball team following a four-set defeat to NJCAA Division II number-15 ranked Central Community College followed by a 3-0 loss to NJCAA Division II number-two ranked Cowley Community College inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium.
Falling to 19-10 overall, Cloud County has now dropped four consecutive contests following a 19-6 start to the year. Central Community College dropped a 3-0 decision to Cowley following their win over the T-Birds and now sit at 19-8 overall while the Tigers remain perfect and hold a 28-0 overall record on the year.
Against Central CC:
Holding just one lead in the opening set of action, Cloud County would see the Raiders manage to take control with a 3-0 spurt to break a 3-3 tie and again after seeing the T-Birds tie things up at 9-9 to reclaim a 12-9 lead that would never be relinquished. CCCC would try to make things interesting down the stretch as a 19-14 deficit would be trimmed all the way down to one at 22-21, but Central would find their offense to close things out with three consecutive kills to shut the door on Cloud County finishing their comeback.
Jumping out to a 6-2 lead in the second, the T-Birds would never trail en route to tying the match up at 1-1 as the lead would grow to six at 13-7 and eventually a set-high seven at 20-13. Despite a late run from the Raiders to pull within three at 21-18, Cloud County would return the favor to Central by using back-to-back
Madison Ronnebaum kills while holding a 23-20 lead to keep the Raiders from being able to steal the set late and turn the rest of the match into a best two-out-of-three situation.
After scoring the opening point of the third, Cloud County would see Central score four of the next five points to start to build a lead before the Raiders would turn a 4-4 tie into a 9-4 contest as a 5-0 run would start to see momentum turn in favor of CCC. Responding with a 4-0 run to get back within a point at 9-8, Central would manage to keep the T-Birds from tying things up as CCCC would get within a point once more at 11-10 before a 5-1 Raider run to push things back out to a five-point deficit. Just like the previous two times, Cloud County would close within a point one final time by scoring four-straight to make it a 16-15 game, but the Raiders would score seven of the next nine and never give Cloud County a chance to make a late push as CCC would take a 25-19 set victory.
The 2-1 set deficit and having their backs against the wall would be a problem for the T-Birds as Central would jump out to an 8-2 lead in the fourth set before going up 12-5 to force a Cloud County timeout with the T-Birds needing to try and stop the set from completely getting away from them. The timeout would appear to do the trick momentarily as four of the next five would be score by Cloud County to get back within four at 13-9, but Central would just as quickly send the lead back out to six at 16-10 to eventually force the final T-Bird timeout at 19-13. Splitting the next four points, Cloud County would then reel off three straight points to put some pressure on the Raiders with the score now 21-18 before ultimately seeing another late close by Central account for the final four points of the match to end things with a 25-18 win by CCC.
The service line would play a key role in determining the outcome of the match as Central would outscore Cloud County 20-2 in service aces while despite the two teams combining for 16 service aces in the match. Things otherwise would be relatively even on the offensive front with Cloud County hitting .220 compared to a .215 attack percentage for the Raiders with the T-Birds edging out CCC in kills by a 53-48 margin.
Recording a match-high 14 kills would be Ronnebaum to go along with a .583 attack percentage with no attack errors on 24 attempts while
Jacey Schurle would also reach double-figure kills for the T-Birds with 10. Sophomore
Katelynn Brogan would have a team-best 23 set assists and tie for the team-lead in digs with 15 while
Ashley Suter would finish one dig shy of a double-double following a 15-assist, nine-dig outing.
Against Cowley:
Facing off against Cowley for the first time since March 1, 2021, Cloud County would see a deep and veteran led Tiger squad score seven of the first eight points of the match on their way to a 9-2 lead in the opening set that would set the tone for how the match would wind up going. Following two quick points from Cloud County with a Cowley service error followed by a service ace from Suter, the Tigers would regain control by scoring five of the next seven points and never letting the T-Birds get closer than seven points the rest of the set with 11 of the final 16 points being scored by Cowley to take a 25-12 opening set win.
Another slow start by Cloud County in the second would see Cowley jump out to an 8-3 lead that would quickly balloon to a 14-5 margin in favor of the Tigers as the T-Birds would be unable to score more than a single point at a time throughout the opening 29 points of the set. Trailing 19-9, Cloud County would appear to start finding some momentum with three-straight points allowing the T-Birds to get back within seven at 19-12, but a 6-1 Tiger run would end the set with the score 25-13 in favor of Cowley.
Finally able to avoid the slow start that led to large deficits in each of the first two sets, Cloud County would go back-and-forth with Cowley to start the third with the first three points being traded before seeing the T-Birds take a 4-3 lead on a Brogan kill. Tied up at 5-5, Cowley would score five of the next seven points to go up 10-7 with the lead for the Tigers growing to five at 16-11 to force a T-Bird timeout. Doubling up Cloud County 4-2 out of the timeout to grow their lead to 20-13, the Tigers would let the T-Birds get no closer than six down the stretch as the deep rotation would lead to fresh legs that would be to the benefit of Cowley to close out a 25-16 set win and three-set sweep.
Held to a season-low .034 attack percentage, Cloud County would have just 18 total kills in the match while seeing Cowley record a .366 attack percentage with 47 kills on 101 attack attempts. Outscored at the service line 8-2, the T-Birds would also be edged out by the Tigers in the block department 8-7 as Cowley would hold an all-around statistical advantage in the match.
Ronnebaum would lead the T-Birds for the second-straight match by recording six kills and providing one block and one service ace while Brogan would account for 11 of Cloud County's 16 set assists. Brogan would also have a team-best four blocks with
Emery May also recording multiple blocks with two while Doile would finish one dig shy of double-digits with nine.
What's Next?
Things don't get any easier for CCCC to close out their week as a 6:30 PM home contest with NJCAA Division I number-19 ranked Barton Community College comes on Saturday evening. Sporting a 20-3 overall record, Barton is currently leading the KJCCC Division I standings with a 10-1 mark in conference play. In the previous meeting between the T-Birds and Cougars this season back on September 13th, BCC took a 25-22, 25-23, 25-15 decision over Cloud County.
