Lady Tiger volleyball team goes 4-0 at challenging Pensacola Tourney
Playing in virtually a mini-national tournament, the No. 1-ranked Cowley College volleyball team went 4-0 against four ranked opponents at the Pensacola Premier Tournament played Friday and Saturday in Pensacola, FL.
The Lady Tigers (26-0), winners of 67 matches in a row, did not drop a set at the tourney.
"We knew we would be playing four quality teams and would need to play Cowley volleyball, and we were able to do that," Cowley head coach Steven Gream said. "These teams we played will be at the national tournament, so we wanted to play opponents that would make us up our games and expose weaknesses."
On Friday morning, the Lady Tigers defeated seventh-ranked Gulf Coast State College by a score of 25-20, 25-19, 25-21.
Cowley led the opening set 10-4 before the Commodores rallied to tie the set at 20-20. However, the Lady Tigers would score the next five points to win 25-20.
Cowley carried that momentum into set two as they raced out to a 10-1 lead. Once again, Gulf Coast attempted to come back and forced Lady Tiger head coach Steven Gream to call a timeout with his team leading 23-19.
Back-to-back kills by Laura Bonomi and Lu Ceroni finished the 25-19 win of set two.
Cowley led set three 22-16 before Gulf Coast scored four of the next five points to cut the Lady Tigers' lead to 23-20. But, once again, Cowley answered by scoring the next two points to win the match.
Bonomi led Cowley with 12 kills, while Sara Puskas added 11 kills. Ceroni and Val Luna also played well, finishing with eight kills apiece.
Later, on Friday, the Lady Tigers defeated fifth-ranked Heartland Community College 25-18, 25-19, 25-19.
Bonomi (18 kills, 10 digs) and Hanna Darvas (39 assists, 10 digs) had double-doubles in the win over Heartland.
Then, on Saturday, Cowley defeated 14th-ranked Enterprise State Community College 25-7, 25-16, 25-19 before taking down 10th-ranked Pensacola State College 25-17, 25-20, 25-15.
In the win over Enterprise State, Bonomi (15 kills, 10 digs) and Darvas (30 assists, 10 digs) again led the way with their second-straight double-double.
Darvas would make it three double-doubles in a row, finishing with 33 assists and 12 digs in the win over Pensacola State College. Freshman Josci Buckley led Cowley with 12 kills.
With the win over Pensacola State College, Gream moves past Linda Hargrove and into second place on the Lady Tigers' all-time wins list, with 293 victories. Deb Nittler, who spent 15 years as the head volleyball coach at Cowley, is at the top of the wins list with 389 victories.
Cowley will return to conference play when they take on 16th-ranked Kansas City Kansas Community College on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Mo. The Lady Blue Devils are 18-5 overall and tie for second in the conference, one game behind Cowley, with a record of 6-1.
"KCK is still fighting for a conference title and is the number one serving team in the conference, ahead of us," Gream said. "They have a high-powered offense and will push us."