LIBERAL - Overcoming an opening 25-19 set defeat, the Cloud County Community College volleyball team would stun No. 9 ranked Seward County Community College in four sets on the road inside the Green House in Liberal on Saturday.
Improving to 12-12 overall and 2-8 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference, Cloud County has now won four of their past seven matches played while handing Seward just their loss home loss over the course of the past three seasons.
Despite falling in the opening set, CCCC would keep things close with the Saints as a 10-10 tie midway through the set would become an 18-17 SCCC lead to set up Seward County to pull away late. The back-and-forth play that was seen in the first set would then become a common theme throughout the night as the T-Birds would break an 18-18 tie in the second to pull out a 25-23 set two victory to tie the match up at 1-1 before taking a 2-1 lead with a 25-23 set victory in the third. Holding onto a 17-16 lead in the fourth set, Cloud County would manage to keep their upset hopes alive late in the fourth as sophomore Geraldyn Palacios would end the match with a kill to the back corner of the court that would cap off a 25-22 set victory to give CCCC the win.
A team-high 12 kills from freshman Kenzie Cooper would lead the T-Birds on Saturday night as the Wamego, Kansas native would finish with a .333 attack percentage on 30 attack attempts. Natasha Dooley would also find her way into double-figure kills by finishing with 10 while Palacios would finish a kill shy of giving Cloud County three players in double figures by finishing with nine kills and a .563 attack percentage.
Dooley would add four of CCCC's seven service aces in the match to go along with 21 digs while Kylie Fuller would record a double-double with 19 set assists and 10 digs. Freshman Mariah Janda would match Fuller with 19 set assists while adding one service ace on the offensive side while Camryn Wessel (six assisted blocks) and Lakyn Tenbrink (five assisted blocks) accounted for six of Cloud County's eight blocks.
What's Next?
The T-Birds will look to keep momentum rolling into the final three-week stretch of the regular season as CCCC will host Garden City Community College for a 6:30 PM match on Monday, October 11th.
The match will mark the first of two matches between the T-Birds and Broncbusters in three days as Cloud County will make a return trip to Garden City on October 13th.