No. 1-ranked Lady Tigers bounce back from first setbacks of the season

After opening the season with 13 straight wins, the No. 1-ranked Cowley College volleyball team finally tasted defeat when they were tripped up by No. 12-ranked East Central (MO) during play at last weekend's Kishwaukee (Ill) Tournament. The Lady Tigers bounced back from the defeat to win its final three matches at the tournament.

Still, Cowley head coach Jenifer Bahner was not pleased with the way her team entered the match with East Central (MO).

"East Central is a good team, but we did not show up at all to compete against them," Bahner said. "We came out with little enthusiasm and it felt like we were continually struggling to try to catch up. We did not recover well from our errors and unfortunately that lead to us creating more errors. It was a downward spiral and we did not have anyone who could pull us out of it."

Cowley followed the 20-25, 19-25, 25-10, 22-25 loss to East Central (MO) on Friday, with a 25-11, 25-13, 25-21 win over Rock Valley (Ill). The squad returned to the court on Saturday and needed only three games to knock off Macomb (MI) Community College (25-16, 25-14, 25-14) and Jackson (MI) Community College (25-10, 25-21, 25-19).

"I was happy to see us come back after our first loss and win our next three matches," Bahner said. "We need to be more mature in the future and not take advantage of our past success."

Cowley again took to the road on Tuesday to play a tough Seminole State squad, which is ranked No. 15 in the latest NJCAA Division I poll. Cowley battled hard before falling by scores of 18-25, 23-25, 25-19, 17-25.

"Unfortunately Seminole was a very similar match to our East Central one," Bahner said. "We made too many errors, did not have any recovery from those errors, and did not support each other as teammates. Part of athletics and having nine new players to your team is learning to grow up, mature, and be disciplined no matter your past success or failures. Seminole had a great home crowd, came out very pumped and we did not respond."

Cowley had 39 kills and 32 errors in the match.

"You cannot win a match when your kills and your errors are almost identical," Bahner said.

After 11 straight road matches, the Lady Tigers returned home to play Fort Scott on Wednesday. Cowley made it 28 home wins in a row with a 25-19, 25-12, 25-15 victory over the Lady Greyhounds. The victory improves Cowley's record to 17-2 overall and 4-0 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division. Fort Scott drops to 12-5 on the season and 2-3 in conference play.

"After our loss to Seminole we talked a lot about the importance of this match being at home and a conference game," Bahner said. "I was very impressed by our home crowd and the energy they brought. I felt like we came out much more focused and ready to play."

Sophomore middle hitter Emily Barto had a great night blocking and helped slow down Fort Scott's offense.

Cowley has a much-needed weekend off before playing at Northern Oklahoma College Monday at 6 p.m. The Lady Tigers defeated NOC 25-18, 25-16, 25-11 on Sept. 3.

Cowley will then play host to Butler Community College in an important conference match Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

"We would love to get a great home crowd for that match," Bahner said. "Butler is always a very strong offensive team so we need to continue to improve on our blocking. I also want this team to remember the importance of energy and excitement for our future matches."

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