Lady Tiger volleyball team splits matches in Kansas City

Having avenged earlier season losses against each of its previous two opponents, the Cowley College volleyball team was unable to make it three opponents in a row as they lost 19-25, 15-25, 16-25 at Kansas City Kansas Community College on Thursday. The Lady Tigers bounced back to defeat Metropolitan Community College 25-21, 25-12, 25-10 later that evening.

The loss to Kansas City snapped Cowley's four-match winning streak and dropped the Lady Tigers' record in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division to 6-8 on the season.

Kansas City raced out to a 9-4 lead in the opening set and led by as many as seven points (19-12) before going on to the 25-19 win.

Trailing set two by a score of 12-9, the Lady Tigers were unable to slow down Kansas City's offense as the Lady Blue Devils used a 9-2 run to blow the game open.

Cowley led the third set by a score of 6-2 before Kansas City scored 15 of the next 17 points to lead 17-8. The Lady Tigers would continue to battle and closed within 19-13, but were unable to complete the comeback in the 25-16 loss.

"We could never get into a rhythm and get the stops defensively that we needed to get," Cowley head coach Steven Gream said.

Cowley is now 10-8 overall on the season, while Kansas City improves its record to 11-7 overall and 9-6 in the Jayhawk East.

Sophomore Iva Halacheva led Cowley with 13 kills in the loss.

Cowley bounced back to defeat Metropolitan Community College in straight sets thanks to 17 kills and 10 digs from Halacheva and 14 kills and a .500 hitting percentage from freshman Maddy Pitts.

"Iva played batter in the match against Metropolitan and Maddy was clicking on all cylinders," Gream said.

The Lady Tigers had four players record double figures in digs, with Erin Thompson leading the way with 18 digs. JuJu Eaton added 13 digs, while Gracie Story recorded another double-double with 24 assists and 10 digs.

"Gracie bounced back very well and placed sets where they needed to be," Gream said.

The Wolves are now 2-10 on the season.

Cowley will return home to face Coffeyville Saturday at noon. The Red Ravens, winners of three matches in a row, are 8-5 overall and 6-4 in the conference.

"Coffeyville will be aggressive with their hitters and we will try to do the same thing to them," Gream said. "Whoever makes the fewest mistakes will win."