Lady Tiger volleyball team suffers rare home loss to Kansas City
The No. 2-ranked Cowley College volleyball team had to put on hold its plans to celebrate a third straight conference title as it suffered a 28-26, 19-25, 25-19, 15-25, 11-15 loss against No. 7-ranked Kansas City Kansas Community College on Wednesday night inside W.S. Scott Auditorium.
The loss snapped a streak of 53 straight home wins for the Lady Tigers. Cowley's last home loss came to Johnson County on March 29, 2021. The Lady Tigers can still earn a share of the conference title with a win over Allen (18-11) on Wednesday.
Cowley is now 27-4 overall and 7-1 in the Jayhawk Conference, while KCK (21-5) moves into a tie for first place in the conference with Cowley at 7-1.
The Blue Devils entered the contest ranked first in the conference in aces, with Cowley second. KCK would finish with 15 aces in the win.
"We knew it would come down to a serve and pass game, and I thought they really put pressure on us with their serve," Cowley head coach Steven Gream said.
Facing three set points in the opening frame, Cowley rallied to go ahead and won 28-26 on a service ace by freshman Sabrina Scariot.
Kansas City put the loss of set one behind them and opened up an early 8-2 lead over the Tigers in set two. However, Cowley would score 9 of the next 11 points to go in front 11-10.
But, Kansas City answered with a 9-2 run of its own to go back ahead 19-13. The Blue Devils would go to a 25-19 win in set two.
Cowley held a slim 18-17 advantage in a back-and-forth third set before winning 25-19.
Set four had KCK being the first team to double-digit points as they led 10-7. Cowley would battle back in front 14-13, but the Blue Devils would score the next five straight points to force Tiger head coach Steven Gream to call a timeout.
Emma Johnson's strong serving could not be stalled, even by the timeout, as she extended the scoring run to 11 as KCK went on to even the match at two sets a piece with a 25-15 win.
The Blue Devils scored three of the first four points in the deciding set five and led 8-5 when the teams switched sides of the net. KCK would go on to win 15-11 as they snapped the Tigers' home winning streak.
"We had to play catch-up all of set five and could not get over the hump," Gream said. "Hats off to KCK, they did a really good job."
Lana Gomilanovic led Cowley with 18 kills, while Josci Buckley added 14.
Cowley will honor its sophomores prior to the final regular-season home game against Allen County on Wednesday, October 29, at 6:30 p.m.
"We need to take care of business against Allen and then get ready for districts," Gream said.