Volleyball remains in first place in Jayhawk East with easy win over Independence
Posted: Sep 30, 2021

Volleyball remains in first place in Jayhawk East with easy win over Independence

With Highland Community College nipping at its heels, the No. 2-ranked Cowley College volleyball team remained in first place in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division with a dominating 25-6, 25-8, 25-11 win over Independence Wednesday inside W.S. Scott Auditorium.

Cowley improves its record to 22-0 overall and 7-0 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division, while Independence falls to 3-19 overall and 1-4 in the conference. Highland remains in second place with a record of 6-0.

The victory was the 399th career win for Lady Tiger head coach Steven Gream. He is now 167-40 during his five plus seasons at Cowley.

"We played a good, clean game, and played to the level we are capable of," Gream said.

Cowley scored the first six points of Wednesday's opening set and after Independence pulled within 11-5, the Lady Tigers ended the first set by out-scoring the Lady Pirates 14-1.

Cowley again raced out to an early 6-1 lead in the second set and cruised to the 25-8 win. Set three saw the Lady Tigers' trailing 5-4 before a 16-2 run helped Cowley run away with the match.

Cowley finished with 12 service aces and were led by Rachele Tessari, who finished with seven kills, six digs and five aces.

"Rachele is one of the top servers in the conference and showed it against Independence," Gream said.

Middle hitter Gyongyver Araczki added 10 kills out of 11 attempts for an incredible .909 hitting percentage.

"She is getting stronger every day and that was the highest hitting percentage we have had all season," Gream said. "Her play allowed our outside hitters more holes."

Iva Halacheva, Cowley's career leader in kills, led the Lady Tigers with 13 kills, while Rossana Papa (33 assists) and Erin Thompson (15 digs) also played well.

Cowley will have a quick turn around as they will play at Seminole State College Friday at 5:30 p.m. The Trojans are 11-9 on the season.

"Seminole will be a scrappy team that presents a balanced attack, so we will need to be prepared to play in front of their home crowd," Gream said.