Cowley volleyball team gives No. 4-ranked Johnson County a scare before losing

Playing its final regular season match Monday inside W.S. Scott Auditorium, the Cowley College volleyball team gave No. 4-ranked Johnson County all they could handle in a 19-25, 25-17, 25-21, 22-25, 13-15 home loss.

"We played very well, just came up short," Cowley head coach Steven Gream said.

With the defeat, Cowley (16-10) finishes the season with a conference record of 10-10. The Lady Tigers finished in a tie for sixth place in the Jayhawk East with Fort Scott.

On Monday, Cowley came back from a 25-19 loss of set one to lead the second set by a score of 11-6. Cowley would score the next seven straight points to lead 18-6 as they went on to the 25-17 win to even the match at a set apiece.

With the third set tied at 20-20, Cowley scored five of the next six points to take a two sets to one lead.

A back and forth set four saw the Lady Tigers take an 18-17 lead before the Lady Cavaliers rallied to win 25-22.

Johnson County would score the first four points of the decisive fifth set before Cowley fought back to tie the game at 11-11. Trailing 14-13, the match ended anticlimactically for the Lady Tigers when a service fault ended the match.

"I thought after that first set we battled them really well," Gream said. "We knew going in it would come down to who made the fewest errors."

The Cavaliers (21-2), winners of 10 matches in a row, finish as Jayhawk East champions with a conference record of 18-2. Johnson County had six players finish with six or more kills and were led by Mikayla Powell's 16 kills.

Lady Tiger sophomore Iva Halacheva led all players with a match-high 22 kills, while Macy Shreffler and Maddy Pitts added 17 and 10 kills, respectively.

Freshman setter Gracie Story also played well in defeat as she went over 1,000 assists on the season.

Cowley will be the sixth-seed in the Region Tournament and will face either Kansas City or Neosho County Friday in Highland, KS. The time of the match is yet to be determined.