Fort Scott sweeps season series against Lady Tiger volleyball team; Cowley knocks off Kansas Wesleyan JV

Hoping to avenge an early season loss to No. 16-ranked Fort Scott Community College, the Cowley College volleyball team showed some improvement from their first meeting but were unable to come away the win in a 22-25, 25-17, 20-25, 23-25 loss Thursday inside W.S. Scott Auditorium. The Lady Tigers would put the loss behind them and return to the court to defeat the Kansas Wesleyan University JV 25-19, 25-20, 25-15.

Cowley is now 6-7 overall and 3-7 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division. Fort Scott, which is coached by former Lady Tiger volleyball standout Aliya Higginbotham, improves to 7-4 in the conference.

Cowley led set one by a score of 18-16 before Fort Scott rallied for the 25-22 win. The Lady Tigers bounced back and were in complete control of the second set as they scored nine of the first 12 points and never looked back in the 25-17 win.

Trailing 9-4 in set three, Cowley rallied to pull within 11-10. However, Fort Scott would score the next five points and went on to the 25-20 win.

Fort Scott again took an early 7-2 lead in set four before Cowley rallied to tie the match on five occasions, the final tie coming at 18-18. However, the Lady Greyhounds would score the next three points and held on to take the match with a 25-23 win of set four.

"We continue to make unforced errors at key times, and are not stopping runs which allow teams to pull away," Cowley head coach Steven Gream said.

Lady Tiger sophomore Iva Halacheva led Cowley with 30 kills and a .529 hitting percentage. Freshmen Macy Shreffler and Maddy Pitts added 12 and 10 kills, respectively. 

It took a while for Cowley to shake off the loss to Fort Scott as they trailed the Kansas Wesleyan University JV 17-15 in set one before scoring 10 of the next 12 points to win 25-19.

Set two again was close as Cowley broke and 18-18 tie by scoring seven of the final nine points to win 25-20. The Lady Tigers finally put it all together in set three as they led 12-3 and cruised to the 25-15 win.

"We got a win, but are still doing some of the same stuff that cost us against Fort Scott," Gream said. "We were just able to get away with it against Kansas Wesleyan.

Halacheva again led Cowley with 17 kills and moved into 13^th place all-time on the Lady Tigers' career kills list. Halacheva has 697 career kills and needs only 46 more to move into 10^th place all time.

Pitts also played well and added 13 kills.

"I am seeing a player that is growing as the season goes along," Gream said. "Maddy is taking ownership of that right side hitting position."

Cowley will play at Allen Community College Saturday at 6:30 p.m. The Lady Red Devils are currently 6-6 overall and 5-6 in the Jayhawk East. The Lady Tigers defeated Allen in straight sets January 28 in Arkansas City, but the Lady Red Devils have played much better since that meeting.

"Allen plays very well at home, so we will need to limit their runs and create our own runs as we did the first time we played them," Gream said.