Cloud County Volleyball Sweeps Pratt to Give Head Coach Deb Monzon 600th Career Win
Behind 14 service aces while honoring eight sophomores playing in the final home match of their careers, the Cloud County Community College volleyball team would have another reason to celebrate as a 3-0 sweep of Pratt would give head coach Deb Monzon her 600th career coaching victory on Wednesday, October 27.
Finishing off the regular-season with a 17-15 overall record, Cloud County improves to 5-11 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while Pratt is now 9-22 overall and finished with KJCCC action at 2-14 with two matches remaining in the regular-season.
It would be a quick start from the T-Birds as CCCC would turn a 2-2 tie into a 13-2 lead after a 9-0 run with freshman Mariah Janda as the service line with the Salina, Kansas native having a role in eight of the nine points (five assists, three service aces). Cloud County would then take their largest lead of the set at 19-6 and be in full control until an 8-0 run from the Beavers pulled PCC back within five at 19-14. After a timeout to regroup and stop the rally, the T-Birds would get back in the scoring column with a Janda kill while splitting the next six points before closing out the set with two of the final three points including a kill from Geraldyn Palacios to earn a 25-18 win.
No big run would be had in the second set as CCCC after the first eight points would be split evenly to keep things tied at 4-4. Cloud County would go on to score the next four points to double up the Beavers at 8-4 as the lead for the T-Birds would stay between one and four points for much of the second set. With Pratt pulling to within one at 17-16, Cloud County would put together three quick points to force a PCC timeout as the run would grow to four as part of a 5-1 run to make it 22-17. The Beavers had one final response with the next two points in the set, but it would not be enough as CCCC would fend off PCC with a kill from Palacios and two more Janda service aces to finish off a 25-19 set victory.
Cloud County would find themselves in a similar situation in the third set as once again the T-Birds would open up a 9-5 lead early on. Refusing to go away quietly, Pratt would battle back to get within a point at 10-9 before eventually tying up the set at 12-12 just five points later. Another tie would be had at 13-13 before being broken on a Natasha Dooley service ace as the CCCC lead would grow back out to five at 20-15. With yet another response, PCC would manage to score seven of the next nine points to force one final tie at 22-22 with the third set proving to be the closest set of the match. Dooley again however would provide a spark to break the tie with a kill followed by a Kylie Fuller service ace and Lakyn Tenbrink kill to finish the match on a 3-0 T-Bird run and give CCCC their second sweep of the year over the Beavers.
A balanced effort from Dooley and Palacios would see the pair finish with nine kills each as Palacios would record her nine kills on 13 attack attempts while committing just one attack error (.615 attack percentage). Janda (23 set assists) and Fuller (15 set assists) would be part of a 6-2 rotation for CCCC on Wednesday night with Fuller accounting for 11 digs to record a double-double while Janda finished one dig (nine) and two service aces (eight) shy of recording a rare triple-double.
What's Next?
Cloud County has qualified for the 2021 NJCAA Region VI Tournament and will be the number-seven seed to open up play on Wednesday, November 3rd at a yet-to-be-determined location. Two conference matches remain in the regular-season which could affect tournament seeding for the number-two seed as the T-Birds will either travel to Great Bend, Kansas to take on Barton or Liberal, Kansas to take on Seward County. A full tournament preview will be posted to www.cloudtbirds.com early next week once the Region VI Tournament bracket has been released.