Errors Loom Large for Cloud County Volleyball in Conference Home Loss to Garden City

Offensive struggles and unforced errors would prove costly for the Cloud County Community College volleyball team in a 3-0 home defeat at the hands of Garden City Community College inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Wednesday, September 7th.

Dropping to 4-4 overall, Cloud County is now 1-3 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while Garden City improves to 13-3 overall on the season while remaining perfect in the KJCCC at 2-0. Scores of the match were 25-16, 25-22 and 25-18 in favor of GCCC.

The struggles from the offensive side would not show themselves early on as the T-Birds would jump out to a quick 3-0 lead in the opening set and lead 4-1 before seeing the Broncbusters go on a 4-0 run to claim their first lead in a set that would feature a total of seven ties and three lead changes. Trailing by a score of 5-4, CCCC would go on to score four of the next five points to go back up by an 8-6 margin before taking their largest lead of the set at 12-8 on a back-to-back kills from Camryn Wessel. Following a GCCC timeout, Garden City would respond with four straight points to tie things up before trading points with the T-Birds to see ties at 13-13 and 14-14. One final lead in the set for Cloud County would come on a Wessel kill to make it 15-14 in favor of the T-Birds before a 7-0 run for the Broncbusters would break things open as the T-Birds never would recover to drop the opening set.

A closely contested start to the second set would see two quick points from Cloud County be offset by a mini 3-0 run from Garden City as the first nine points of the set would come in runs of two or three for each squad. Trailing 5-4, CCCC would get back even on a kill from freshman Doga Eski as the Broncbusters and T-Birds would go on to trade the next four points with the fourth point leading to a 5-2 GCCC run that would put the Broncubusters up by a 10-7 margin. The three-point Cloud County deficit would quickly be erased as the T-Birds would manage to tie things up at 11-11 on a Zoe Bechard service ace, but Garden City once again would have a response.

After a 3-0 Broncbuster run would appear to be offset by two straight points in favor of Cloud County, things would shift completely in the favor of GCCC as five of the next six points would be scored by Garden City to put CCCC in a 19-14 hole. Showing resilience, the T-Birds would manage to score six of the net seven points with two service aces coming from Brette Doile as part of the run that would tie things up and prepare for a closely contested final stretch of the set. After using a timeout, Garden City would manage to side out on a CCCC attack error before giving up back-to-back points to the T-Birds that would appear to put Cloud County in position to close out the set. The opportunity never would come to fruition however as the final four points of the set would be scored by Garden City and wipe out any momentum that the T-Birds had going into the third set while facing a 2-0 hole after a 25-22 set defeat.

Another promising start to a set by CCCC would see the T-Birds trade the first four points of the set on their way to jumping out to leads of 6-4 and 7-5 while trying to find a way to get back into the match. Things would become tied up again however at 7-7, 8-8, and 9-9 before back-to-back attack errors from Cloud County would allow Garden City to go on a 7-0 run to take the wind out of the sails of the T-Birds in what had become a 15-9 deficit. GCCC would continue on and grow their lead to as many as eight at 18-10 and again at19-11 and 20-12 before three straight points for Cloud County would provide a glimmer of hope in trying to get back into the set. A well-timed timeout however by the Broncbusters would put an end to things however as four of the next six points would be scored by Garden City to get to match point and eventually ending things on their second match point.

As a team, 22 attack errors would nearly offset the total of 25 kills that CCCC would produce on the night, equating to a .031 attack percentage across the three-set match. No T-Bird would finish with more than seven kills, led by Kenzie Cooper (seven) and Wessel (six). One of the few bright spots for Cloud County in the match would be eight service aces with three coming from Doile who would also record three digs and nine set assists. On the defensive end, Katelynn Brogan would record a team-best 12 digs while assisting on five of CCCC's seven total blocks.

What's Next?
Cloud County is back at home on Saturday, September 10th when they play host to Barton Community College with a 2 PM first serve inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium. The match will feature special guests cheering on the T-Birds as CCCC has designated Saturday's match as the North Central Down Syndrome Society "buddies" game, with all buddies and their families getting free admission to the game and the chance to collect autographs from all T-Bird volleyball players in a post-game autograph session.