Road woes continue for Lady Tiger volleyball team

The No. 15-ranked Cowley College volleyball team started strong in its match at Neosho County on Thursday, winning the first set by a score of 25-20. However, the Lady Panthers rallied to win the next three sets by scores of 25-14, 25-21, 25-15 to send the Lady Tigers to its third straight road defeat to open the season.

Cowley is now 2-3 overall and 1-3 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division. Neosho County, picked to finish eighth in the conference, is now 3-1 overall and 3-0 in the Jayhawk East.

In set one, Cowley used a 10-2 run to turn a 13-12 deficit into a 22-15 lead as they went on to the 25-20 victory.

Trailing 9-6 in set two, Cowley saw Neosho score nine of the next 11 points and were not able to recover in the 25-14 loss.

Set three saw the Tigers leading 10-8 before Neosho would score eight straight points to grab control in the 25-21 win.

The fourth and final set got away from Cowley early, with Neosho racing out to a 12-2 lead and never looking back in the 25-15 win.

"It was a matter of who would make the least amount of errors and unfortunately we had too many unforced errors," Cowley head coach Steven Gream said. "We also need to be able to punch back when a team is making runs on us."

Lady Tiger sophomore Iva Halacheva led Cowley with 16 kills in the defeat. McKinley Pruitt and Jolene Tidwell led Neosho County with 9 kills apiece.

Cowley will return home to play a pair of matches on Monday. The Lady Tigers, which are 2-0 at home, will play a conference match against No. 18-ranked Kansas City at 4 p.m. before taking on Seminole State College at 8. Kansas City is 3-1 in the Jayhawk East, while Seminole State is 0-1 on the season.

"KCK is playing very well and with a lot of confidence, and Seminole is improved from last year," Gream said. "We need to have a desire to control the ball in those matches."