Johnson County rallies to shock Lady Tigers in district title match
In a rematch of last year’s national championship match, the third-seeded Johnson County Cavaliers rallied from two sets down to defeat second-seeded Cowley College 22-25, 20-25, 25-17, 25-23, 15-12 in the District B Plains Title Match played Sunday afternoon inside W.S. Scott Auditorium.
Johnson County is now 24-7 and earns an automatic trip to the NJCAA Division II National Tournament, which will take place from November 19 to 22 in Cedar Rapids, IA. Cowley (30-5) will have to wait and see if they will receive one of the four at-large selections to be able to defend their back-to-back national championships.
Sunday's match featured a large contingency of Tiger fans and a healthy mix of Cavalier fans that made the trip from Overland Park. The large crowd created a national tournament atmosphere inside W.S. Scott Auditorium.
Trailing set one 10-7, Cowley used a 12-4 run to lead 19-14 following an ace by freshman Kat Mizell. Johnson County would pull within 23-22 before the Lady Tigers scored the next two points to win 25-22.
Cowley then raced out to a 7-3 lead in set two prior to the Cavaliers rallying to tie the set at 11-11. The Lady Tigers would score five of the next six points and took off from there, winning 25-20.
It would be all Johnson County in set three as the Cavaliers never trailed in the 25-17 win.
"Johnson County cleaned things up after those first two sets," Cowley head coach Steven Gream said.
Johnson County continued to put the pressure on, scoring seven of the first nine points in set four. The Cavaliers would lead by as many as 10 points (16-6) before Cowley clawed to within 24-23 before falling 25-23.
Johnson County carried the momentum into the fifth and final set, never trailing in the 15-12 win.
"We made runs, but we made runs too late," Gream said. "You can't dig yourself a hole like we did against a good team."
Freshman Lana Gomilanovic's 23 kills led Cowley. Sophomore Josci Buckley added 13 kills, while Teo Cekan finished with 10.
Ava Esser (19 kills) and Brooke Boyer (18 kills) led Johnson County by combining for 37 kills.
After winning its first 23 matches, Cowley has gone 7-5 in its past 12 contests, with all five losses coming against ranked competition.