Cowley wins a five-set thriller to advance to the national semifinals
Fighting back from a two-set-to-one deficit against No. 3-seed Parkland College, the No. 6-seed Cowley College volleyball team rallied to advance to the semifinals of the NJCAA Division II Volleyball National Championships in Cedar Rapids, IA, with a 25-22, 17-25, 20-25, 25-21, 15-9 win over the Cobras on Thursday night inside Alliant Energy Powerhouse.
Cowley (32-5), the back-to-back national champions, advance to face second-seed Heartland College (38-4) on Friday at 4 p.m. The Tigers lost to the Hawks (32-34, 20-25, 15-25) when the teams met on October 10 in Normal, IL.
Thursday's match was eerily similar to the teams' previous meeting in the Heartland Community College Invitational, with Cowley winning the earlier match in five sets as well. Both teams had been ranked No. 1 earlier in the season and are led by Hall of Fame coaches.
"It was set up to be a classic match with two talented teams, each side trading blows, making adjustments, and just playing with heart," Cowley head coach Steven Gream said.
Trailing 14-10 in set one, Cowley rallied to win the first set by a score of 25-22.
However, the Lady Tigers fell behind 11-4 in the second set and were unable to recover in the 25-17 defeat.
Cowley led set three 7-4 before Parkland scored 11 of the next 15 points to go in front 15-11 and never trailed again in the 25-20 victory.
Things looked bleak for Cowley early in the fourth set as the Cobras raced out to a 6-2 lead. But, with their backs against the wall, the Lady Tigers rallied to go in front 12-10 on a block by Cassie Ellegood. Cowley would continue to play with confidence and went on to force a fifth and final set with a 25-21 win in set four.
Kat Mizell, who finished with a match-high eight service aces, helped serve Cowley to an 8-4 lead in the final set. The Cobras would not go away easily, scoring the next three points to pull within 8-7. However, the Tigers would score seven of the next nine points to set off a massive celebration with the 15-9 win.
"With us being the last match of the day, we still had teams and fans there watching such a classic match," Gream said. "Shout out to our friends at KCK who stayed to support their fellow Jayhawk team, along with other teams that were there supporting and bringing energy to such a great match. Cowley Nation was there in full force, and our team used that energy throughout the match."
Cowley finished with an incredible 15 service aces and was led by sophomore Josci Buckley's 19 kills. Lana Gomilanovic added 18 kills and seven digs, while Hanna Darvas had a double-double with 54 assists and 12 digs. Sabrina Scariot and Tessa Mossburg also stepped up their play, finishing with 18 digs apiece.
"Our defense really stepped up, and our serve put a lot of pressure on Parkland, which allowed us to make runs with our fast and balanced offense," Gream said. "We struggled in those sets where we couldn't get into a flow offensively, but really turned it on in sets four and five."
Shay McMillen led Parkland (49-5) with 14 kills.
No. 8-seed Gulf Coast State will battle No. 4-seed Kansas City, Kansas, in Friday's other semifinal match. The winners of the semifinal contests will play for a national championship on Saturday at 5 p.m.
Watch every match live on the NJCAA Network. For full schedules, recaps, and bracket updates, visit the Championship Website.