Lady Tiger volleyball team continues revenge tour

After a rough start to the conference season, the Cowley College volleyball team continues to turn things around as the Lady Tigers picked up their fourth straight win with a 25-16, 25-22, 16-25, 25-23 win over No. 10-ranked Neosho County Thursday inside W.S. Scott Auditorium.

The Tigers previously defeated Cloud County on Monday night after losing earlier in the season to the T-Birds. And, after losing at Neosho County back on February 4, the Lady Tigers turned the tables on the Panthers on Thursday.

"This was a big win for us because they beat us pretty handily the first time we played them," Cowley head coach Steven Gream said.

Cowley raced out to an 8-2 lead in set one and cruised to the 25-16 win.

"We wanted to make sure we set the tone early and we were able to do that with our defense," Gream said.

Sophomore JuJu Eaton served the Lady Tigers to a quick 3-0 lead in set two before the teams began to trade points for the majority of the set. With the score tied at 21-21, Cowley would score four of the next five points to win 25-22.

Neosho would score five of the first six points in set three and never trailed in the 25-16 win.

A back and forth set four saw Neosho leading 18-16 before Cowley would score four straight points to regain a 20-18 lead. With the Lady Tigers clinging to a 22-20 advantage, Cowley freshman Dani Smith made a spectacular diving dig that would lead to a kill by Iva Halacheva to make the score 23-20.

"Dani keeping that ball alive allowed us to eventually set up Iva perfectly on the outside," Gream said.

However, Neosho would score the next three points to tie the set at 23-23. Once again, Halacheva came up with a big kill to set up match point. The final point of the match came with Halacheva smartly finding an opening with a tip kill at the net.

Halacheva led Cowley with 18 kills, while freshman Maddy Pitts came up big with 12 kills and a .458 hitting percentage.

"Maddy's play is making teams more honest, to where they can't worry about just one side of the court," Gream said.

Erin Thompson (20 digs) led three Cowley players in double figures in digs, and Gracie Story led the team with 37 assists. Freshman Katie Morrison also came up huge as she finished with a season-high 10 blocks in the win.

"Katie was a major reason we won those first two sets. She was blocking everything and really slowed down their attack," Gream said.

Cowley is now 9-7 overall and 6-7 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division. The Lady Tigers are in a three-way tie for seventh place in the conference, but can continue its climb in the standings when they play at Kansas City Thursday, March 11 at 4 p.m. The Lady Blue Devils, 6-6 in the Jayhawk East, are another team that Cowley is looking to defeat after falling to earlier in the season.

"I think our players realize the matches we previously lost we helped teams with our unforced errors," Gream said. "I think this week off comes at a good time, we just don't want to lose that momentum and sense of urgency we are playing with."