Cowley volleyball knocks off three ranked teams while improving to 33-0

With the playoffs looming, the No. 2-ranked Cowley College volleyball team traveled to Iowa Central for the Triton Invitational Tournament. At the tournament, the Lady Tigers played against No. 5-ranked Kirkwood, No. 3-ranked Iowa Central, North Iowa Area Community College, and 12^th-ranked Des Moines Area Community College. The Lady Tigers defeated all four teams to improve their record to 33-0 on the season.

Coming off of the home win against Jayhawk Conference foe Kansas City Kansas Community College on Wednesday, the Lady Tigers looked to carry the momentum into the key matches in the Triton Invitational Tournament. Cowley used their solid serving combined with a balanced attack and speed of their offense to cause problems for fifth-ranked Kirkwood. The Lady Tigers maintained the lead throughout the set to give Cowley the 25-17 first-set win.

In the second set, Kirkwood put pressure on Cowley, which resulted in a back-and-forth game. Key plays at the end resulted in Cowley pulling away with the tight 26-24 win. In the third set, Cowley turned up the heat on their serving game and balanced attack combined with a stellar defense that allowed the team to pull away for the 25-19 win.

For the match, Anna Kiss led the team with 14 kills. She was followed by Sara Puskas, who had 13 kills and a .524 hitting percentage, and Valarie Luna and Laura Bonomi, who each had eight kills, respectively. Rossana Papa recorded 33 assists and four aces. Sadie Kabisch recorded 13 digs to lead the team on defense. Cowley hit .280 with 45 kills, 12 aces, 37 digs, and three blocks.

Coming off of the win over Kirkwood, the second match of the first day was against host Iowa Central. In the first set, Iowa Central came out on fire with a back-and-forth match between the two programs, but Cowley came out on top with the score of 25-22.

In the second set, Cowley served more aggressively, balanced their attack, and ratcheted up their defensive presence. Just as in the first set, the set went back and forth between the two teams, however, a key push at the end allowed Cowley to pull away for the 25-17 win.

The third set, Cowley cranked up the defense, kept their offense, and served aggressively to put Iowa Central on their heels the whole set. The result was a 25-21 win.

Individually, Laura Bonomi led all players with her 16^th double-double of the season, finishing with 14 kills and 14 digs. Anna Kiss and Sara Puskas followed with 11 kills each. Valarie Luna recorded five kills, and Lu Ceroni recorded four kills. Rossana Papa had earned her 10^th double-double of the season, dishing out 33 assists to go along with 14 digs. Sadie Kabisch led the defense with 20 digs for the match. Cowley recorded a .240 hitting percentage with 46 kills, three aces, 76 digs, and three blocks.

On day two of the Triton Invitational Tournament, Cowley was up against North Iowa Area CC. In set one, Cowley came out aggressive with the attack and served to throw off North Iowa Area to easily take set one 25-11. However, in set two, North Iowa Area capitalized on timely errors while playing more aggressively with timely hitting and defense to erase the once-strong Cowley lead. The set then became back-and-forth before Cowley pulled away in the end for the 25-21 win.

In set three, Cowley bounced back with even more determination with their aggressive serving, balanced attack, and strong defense to jump out to a big lead and never looked back as the Lady Tigers went on to a 25-14 win.

In the match, Anna Kiss led the way with 11 kills while hitting a .321 hitting percentage. Laura Bonomi followed with 10 kills, a .316 hitting percentage, and 12 digs. Sara Puskas recorded six kills, and Noemi Nyers recorded five kills. Rossana Papa dished out 33 assists and recorded six aces.

Sadie Kabisch recorded 11 digs in the match. Bonomi's 10 kills and 12 digs earned her the 17th double-double on the season. Cowley recorded a .272 hitting percentage with 37 kills, 12 aces, 45 digs, and one block.

The second match of day two placed Cowley up against the No. 12 ranked Des Moines Area CC. In set one, Cowley came out on fire with strong serving, combined with a potent offense and defense that has been so critical in their game all season. However, with the score at 20-13, DMACC made a push to close the gap but came up short with the 25-19 win for Cowley.

In set two, DMACC bounced back with a strong and aggressive serve of their own to create issues for Cowley and allowed them to pull to a 13-4 lead. After a timely time-out by Cowley, the Lady Tigers chipped away, one point at a time, and tied the set at 19-19. The rest of the set was back and forth, but it was critical plays at the end to give Cowley the 27-25 win.

Set three, Cowley carried over the momentum of the second set and cruised to a 9-4 lead to start the set. The Lady Tigers never looked back and pulled to the 25-17 win.

In the match, Anna Kiss led the way with 16 kills while hitting a .519 hitting percentage and five aces. Laura Bonomi followed with 15 kills while hitting .375 with 10 digs. Lu Cernoni recorded nine kills while hitting a team-high .727 hitting percentage with two blocks. Sara Puskas recorded seven kills and three blocks. Valarie Luna added six kills while hitting .462 with one block. Rossana Papa dished out a career-high 46 assists, 10 digs, and one ace. Sadie Kabisch led the way with 20 digs in the match. Bonomi's 15 kills and 10 digs earned her the 18th double-double of the season. Papa's 46 assists and 10 digs earned her the 11th double-double of the season. Cowley recorded a hitting percentage of .400 with 53 kills, 10 aces, 56 digs, and four blocks.

Coach Steven Gream had this to say about four four-match tournament.

"Coming off of the strong win over KCK, we managed to continue the momentum going into the matches this weekend," Gream said. "We had a few dips to let go of some leads we had built, but we managed to right the ship and pull away from our opponents. That second set against DMACC was amazing in seeing the fight this team had to battle back from a nine-point deficit and pull out the win. The tournament pushed us to continue our strong offense with a balanced attack but to also enhance our aggressive serving and defense. Our defense and serving allowed us to build our leads by allowing our offense to get easy balls to put away in transition. Our players gained valuable experience that will prepare them for the rest of our conference play and the postseason."

Up next for the Cowley volleyball team is a home match against Jayhawk Conference foe Fort Scott on Wednesday, October 25, at 6:30 p.m., and then travel to Hesston College for the final regular season match on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Photo Credit: Aigiza Nasyrova