Volleyball gets tripped up by Fort Scott

For the second straight season, the No. 3-ranked Cowley College volleyball team suffered a season-opening loss to Fort Scott Community College. This time, the Lady Tigers lost 21-25, 23-25, 23-25 Monday in Fort Scott.

"Fort Scott came to play and put the pressure on us with their offense," Cowley head coach Steven Gream said.

After dropping the first two sets, Cowley appeared poised to win set three as they led 16-10. However, the Lady Greyhounds rallied to close the match on a 15-7 run to win in straight sets.

"We could not get the stops we needed at key times in the match," Gream said.

The Greyhounds (1-0) are led by former Cowley College standout Aliyah Higginbotham.

Sophomore Iva Halacheva led the Lady Tigers with 11 kills, while freshman Macy Shreffler added 10 kills. Fellow freshmen Gracie Story (34 assists) and Erin Thompson (10 digs) led the team in assists and digs, respectively.

"We are going to be counting a lot on the freshmen this season," Gream said.

Cowley, picked second in the preseason conference poll, will look to bounce back after losing to a Fort Scott team that was picked seventh in the conference. The Lady Tigers will host a pair of matches on Thursday. Cowley will take on conference foe Allen Community College at 4 p.m. before doing battle with Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College at 8 p.m.

"I hope we learn to really prioritize getting stops at key times," Gream said. "We also need to keep our serve to create runs."

With no fans allowed in attendance through at least February 5, the matches will be streamed through the Cowley Sports Network at www.cowleytigers.com/csn.