Cloud County Volleyball Team Closes Out Regular Season with Sweep of Kansas Wesleyan JV
After jumping out to a 2-0 lead and a set away from sweeping the match, the Cloud County Community College volleyball team would need extra points to close out a three-set sweep of the Kansas Wesleyan University JV team inside Mabee Arena in Salina, Kansas on Saturday, October 28th.
With the 2022 regular season complete, Cloud County improves to 12-17 overall while winning each of their final five games. Kansas Wesleyan JV falls for just the third time in 2022, dropping to 13-3 on the year.
Opening the match on an 8-3 run to force a Coyote timeout early in the first set, the T-Birds would trail by just the opening point in the first set as the run that would follow allowed CCCC to keep a four-point cushion throughout much of the set. With the score sitting at 15-11 and the T-Birds out in front, Cloud County would look to build their lead with sophomore Mariah Janda at the service line as a set-ending 7-0 run would cap off a 25-14 opening set win.
The early advantage that CCCC was able to take advantage of in the opening set would not occur in the second as it would be Kansas Wesleyan getting out to an 8-5 lead thanks in part to three Cloud County errors while being efficient on the offensive end to record five kills. Cutting into the lead with a Kenzie Cooper kill to get within two at 9-7, the T-Birds would tie things back up just four points later on another Cooper kill but would be unable to take their first lead of the set after a KWU JV kill. Another tie at 11-11 and 13-13 would keep things close with the Coyotes and T-Birds trading points with a 12-point stretch of points being traded back and forth leading to six more ties. The point to tie things at 19-19 would come courtesy of freshman Madison Ronnebaum and start a 7-2 set-ending run for Cloud County as CCCC would never look back after taking the lead and take a 25-21 set two victory.
Following the back-and-forth second set, the T-Birds would manage to score five of the opening set points in the third to go up 5-2 early on as the lead would manage to be held all the way until 5-0 run by Kansas Wesleyan JV would turn an 11-7 CCCC lead into a 12-11 KWU JV lead. Tying things back up at 12-12, Cloud County would briefly reclaim the lead before giving up a 3-0 run to allow the Coyotes to go back up 15-14. Just like what was seen in the second, both CCCC and KWU JV would begin trading points back and forth as neither team would be able to grab control of the set heading into the final stages of the set until a 5-2 rally by Kansas Wesleyan at 19-19 would force the T-Birds into their first timeout of the match. Needing to try and break serve, CCCC would get back-to-back setter kills from Brette Doile to tie the set at 23-23 and get the Coyotes to use a timeout with the set guaranteed to be closer than either of the prior two. Out of the timeout by Kansas Wesleyan, Cloud County would get the Coyotes out of system to force a ball handling error that would be followed up by a Katelynn Brogan kill to get to match point. Up 25-24, the T-Birds would not waste any more time in ending the match as Doga Eski would put down the final kill on the next rally to finish out a 26-24 set win and a 3-0 match sweep.
Both Brogan and Cooper would finish with a team-best eight kills each with Brogan adding 19 set assists and seven assisted blocks. Also finishing with 19 set assists would be Doile to go along with nine digs while Janda would collect a team-best 10 digs to lead the T-Birds.
What's Next?
Cloud County will play in the 2022 NJCAA Region VI Volleyball Tournament with opening round games on Wednesday, November 2nd as seeding has yet to be finalized. Once announced following the conclusion of regular season conference play on Saturday, the T-Birds will find out their first-round opponent as CCCC will be on the road for the opening round match.