Tigers open conference play with a straight sets win over Coffeyville
Opening conference play at home on Wednesday, the No. 1-ranked Cowley College volleyball team remained unbeaten on the season with a 25-20, 25-13, 25-12 win over the Coffeyville Red Ravens.
The Lady Tigers are now 6-0 overall and 1-0 in the Jayhawk Conference. Coffeyville falls to 3-9 and 0-1 in conference play,
Cowley led 18-11 in set one before some service errors and a few miscues allowed Coffeyville to pull within 24-20 before sophomore setter Hanna Darvas went up for the kill and a 25-20 Tiger win.
Cowley was never pushed in set two as they led 16-6 following a service ace by Darvas and cruised to the 25-13 win.
Set three was much of the same with Cowley using a 14-4 run to break a 6-6 tie en route to the 25-12 victory.
"We played a little sloppy in the first set and gave them easy points," Cowley head coach Steven Gream said. "We did better in the second and third sets and made them earn their points."
Darvas finished with 30 assists, four kills and three service aces.
"I want to be such a good leader for the freshmen and I think the Nebraska tournament last weekend really helped us get together and play as a team," Darvas said.
Cowley tallied 10 aces in the match, but also had 14 service errors.
"We are always going to teach serving aggressive, but we can't let teams make runs off our missed serves and we did that tonight," Gream said.
Returning all-conference and all-district outside hitter Josci Buckley made her season debut after recovering from injury and finished with six kills.
"Josci is still trying to get her feet underneath her, but it was good to get her some work in," Gream said.
Freshman Teo Cekan had her best match of the early season, finishing with 15 kills and a .682 hitting percentage.
"I thought Teo had a great game, put pressure on them and really balanced the floor," Gream said.
Fellow freshman Lana Gomilanovic also played well, finishing with eight kills and an .800 hitting percentage. The Lady Tigers hit .465 for the match.
Cowley, winners of 87 matches in a row, will have some time off before playing at Independence (3-7) on Wednesday, September 10 at 6:30 p.m.
"Every time we get out there we get better and better," Gream said. "We want to use these upcoming matches to clean some things up before we go to (No. 5-ranked) Johnson County."