Lady Tigers open defense of their crown; Gream earns 500th career win

Playing in front of an energized home crowd, the defending national champion Cowley College volleyball team fed off the energy in the gym to defeat Rose State College 25-8, 25-11, 25-8 and Pratt Community College 25-16, 25-14, 25-15 on Friday inside W.S. Scott Auditorium. The win against Rose State was Lady Tiger head coach Steven Gream's 500^th career win as a collegiate head coach.

"It is a huge honor to reach 500 career wins in my college coaching career," Gream said. "When I first started coaching, that was one of my mini goals to reach. I have been blessed with great players and teams over the past 20 years, allowing me to reach that milestone."

Returning All-American Laura Bonomi led the top-ranked Lady Tigers with a double-double (19 kills, 12 digs) in the win over Rose State.

"Laura picked right up where she left off in her highly decorated freshman season," Gream said. "She set the tone early with her ability to fan the floor on our opponents to make her hard to defend."

Fellow sophomore Sara Puskus added 13 kills.

Taking over for two-time All-American setter Rosanna Papa, Hanna Darvas finished with a match-high 27 assists.

"Our setters did very well running our offense to get open looks for our hitters," Gream said. "Hanna Darvas ran our offense smoothly and put pressure on both teams with her ability to attack the ball and her strong serve.  Sadie Lewis also did a great job leading the offense to average 13 assists on the day. Our hitters are still adjusting to both of our setters, but I saw some great signs in the matches that we are getting closer."

In Cowley's second match against Pratt, Bonomi again led the team with 17 kills. Freshman Josci Buckley followed her nine-kill performance against Rose State with 11 kills against Pratt.

"I thought Josci Buckley had a fantastic day with her making her college debut and recording 20 kills and hitting .436 on the day," Gream said. "This will fuel her confidence more as she continues to adjust to our fast-paced offense and the college game."

Darvas finished with 39 assists in the win over the Beavers, while freshman Jessi Ritchhart had a match-high 23 digs.

"Cowley has a tradition of having great setters who run our strong offense, and Hanna and Sadie are well on their way to doing the same," Gream said. "Also, Jessi Ritchhart was everywhere on defense and touched everything to average 7.17 digs per set on the day."

After a pair of home scrimmages, the Lady Tiger faithful were eager to witness the defending champs in matches that count in the standings.

"We had such a great crowd show up for our matches, and our players fed off that crowd," Gream said. "At first, they were nervous, but once they got used to everything, they took off. We are a very talented group but have some young players in key spots. There are some learning experiences we can take from these matches to clean up before conference play and beyond."

Cowley will play its first road match of the season on Wednesday when they play at Coffeyville at 6 p.m. The match will be the season-opener for the Red Ravens.