Lady Tigers celebrate championships, improve to 6-0 in Jayhawk Conference
On a night when the top-ranked Cowley College volleyball team had the banners unveiled on their back-to-back national championships, the environment inside W.S. Scott Auditorium on Tuesday night felt like a championship match. The Lady Tigers came back from a slow start to take down No. 16-ranked Neosho County 24-26, 25-19, 25-15, 25-12.
Along with the back-to-back national championship banners hanging from the rafters, the 2011and 2013 banners were also on display.
"It was a great moment celebrating the tradition of excellence of Cowley volleyball with the hanging of the four championship banners," Cowley head coach Steven Gream said. "Seeing the banners hanging in W.S. Scott Auditorium makes it surreal to know we were a part of those wonderful seasons. Sharing that moment with our players and fans was an amazing experience."
Cowley, winners of 103 matches in a row, is now 22-0 on the season and 6-0 in the Jayhawk Conference. Neosho County falls to 16-8 and 3-3 in the conference.
Leading 15-10, Cowley appeared to be on the way to a win in set one. Neosho chipped away at the Lady Tigers' lead, but Cowley still had set point at 24-22 before the Panthers scored four straight points to win 26-24.
"We gave Neosho too many easy points in the first set," Gream said.
Cowley led set two 6-2 before Neosho rallied to take a 14-12 lead. The Lady Tigers would fight back to come away with the 25-19 win of the second set.
With set three being back and forth, Cowley held a slim 14-12 lead before scoring seven straight points en route to the 25-15 win.
The Lady Tigers continued to pour it on in the fourth set, racing out to a 16-6 lead on the way to the 25-12 win.
"We cleaned things up and put more pressure on Neosho after the first set, and that's why you see the scores the way they are," Gream said.
Freshman Lana Gomilanovic led Cowley with 17 kills, while sophomore Ashlynn Jaccard added 15 kills.
Sophomore Josci Buckley, who recently surpassed 500 kills in her career, added 11 kills, while Teo Cekan had 10.
Cowley will prepare to play four matches at the Heartland Community College Invite on Friday and Saturday.
On Friday, Cowley will face sixth-ranked Parkland and third-ranked Heartland Community College. The Lady Tigers will take on Hawkeye Community College and fourth-ranked Kirkwood on Saturday.
"You have to get out of your comfort zone in order to grow," Gream said. "The teams we will play this weekend are exactly what we saw against Neosho."