MCC Volleyball goes to 7-1 with Saturday split

The McCook Community College volleyball team's season-opening win streak came to an end Saturday in the opening match of the MCC Invite as No. 9 Indian Hills Community College picked up a 3-1 win. MCC closed out the tournament with a 3-0 win over Fort Scott Community College.

"Both of the Iowa teams that came in for this tournament are really solid and you add Hill College from Texas and Hutchinson is always a solid program, but this was a quality tournament and from the matches I saw, everyone competed," said MCC Coach Hayley Kobza.

The ninth-ranked Warriors took charge of the match against MCC in the opening set rolling to a 9-1 lead on the way to a 25-12 win. MCC came back and won 25-20 but IHCC reclaimed the momentum with a 25-7 third-set win. The four-set was a battle as MCC led 16-13 but couldn't put the game away, losing the final set 29-27.

"Clearly that wasn't our best performance because we just didn't come out and compete," said MCC Coach Hayley Kobza. "At the end of the day, I'm O.K. if we lose as long as we gave it everything we had, and after the match our players honestly said they did not do that and that's what we need to strive to do."

MCC goes to 7-1 on the season. Indian Hills goes to 5-3 and Fort Scott goes to 2-7

The Lady Indians hit the road for the first time Friday and Saturday traveling to Gainesville, Texas for the North Central Texas College Invite. On Friday MCC plays Warton Junior College and 1 p.m. and No. 11 Blinn College at 5 p.m. On Saturday MCC plays North Central Texas at 9 a.m. and Dallas College-Brookhaven at 11 a.m.

MCC's next match in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center will be Sept. 18 at 6 p.m. against Central Community College.

Up-to-date information about MCC volleyball including livestream links, schedule, statistics, rosters, photos and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com

INDIAN HILS CC 3, McCOOK CC 1: The Warriors, ranked No. 9 in the NJCAA D1 preseason rankings, dominated the first and third sets before winning the fourth set in extra points.

Sophomore Caylin Barnett (Southwest High School) and Romina Martinez Castro (sophomore, Cochabamba, Bolivia) both had seven kills in the match. Barnett also had four digs, three aces and 1 block. Martinez added a block a dig and an ace.

Freshman Charlee Russick (Berthoud, Colo.) had three kills and four digs. Freshman Audrey Holm (Paxton) and sophomore Rowan Tribelhorn (Yuma, Colo.) both had three kills, and a block.

Ella Verts (freshman, Marshall, Mo.) paced the team with four blocks along with two kills and a dig.

Freshman Abby Thompson (Bison, S.D.) led MCC with 13 assists along with two blocks and an ace. Megan Walker (freshman, Haxtun, Colo.) had five assists, four digs and two aces. Freshman Cibeles Bothwell (Spring, Texas) had three aces and two digs.

McCOOK CC 3, HILL COLLEGE 0: After winning the first set 25-11, MCC got down 21-14 in the second set but went on an 11-2 run to win 25-23.

"This team seems to strive on the stress of climbing back to the top at times," said Kobza. "We've just got to play consistent and play hungry."

MCC won the final set 25-17 as a couple freshmen saw their first significant action on the court.

"Audrey Holm came in and just got to work," said Kobza. "She hadn't played for us yet this season except for a few serve rotations Friday," said Kobza.

Caylin Barnett led MCC with 11 kills along with five digs. Audrey Holm had 10 kills and three digs.

Rowan Tribelhorn had nine kills, Charlee Russick was credited with four with six digs, and Romina Martinez Castro had three kills, two aces and eight digs.

Cibeles Bothwell had eight digs and led MCC with five aces.

Abby Thompson had 30 assists, two aces and one kill while Megan Walker had four assists and three digs

"Abby Thompson, the freshman, came in just to give us a little different look and consistency at setter and she and Audrey really connected," said Kobza.

McCook had no blocks in the match.

"We still have to improve to our peak point and then stay consistent," said Kobza.