Lady Indians drop match to Eastern Wyoming

The McCook Community College volleyball team dropped a four-set match to Eastern Wyoming Thursday night at home in the opening game of the MCC Labor Day Weekend Tournament.

The Lady Indians won the first set 25-22, then lost three straight, 15-25, 20-25 and 22-25.

"This wasn't really how I expected us to respond after losing our last two games last weekend in Texas," said MCC Coach Hayley Kobza. "We practiced with intention this week to make sure we didn't have that up-and-down play and unfortunately that is exactly what happened."

MCC trailed 12-20 in the third set before responding with an 8-2 run to make it a 20-22 game but the Lancers won three straight points to go up 2-1.

"After winning that first set, we were just up and down the whole time," said Kobza. "We got down and seemed out of it in that third set and came back but couldn't close it out and then we just couldn't get consistent in that final set. We had our chances because it was a close set from start to finish."

A trio of freshmen led the hitting attack. Jade Powell (Sterling, Colo.) had 10 kills and one assist block. Relebohile Phamotse (Maseru, Lesotho) was credited with nine kills and two assist blocks. Maggie Fiene (Murray, Neb., Conestoga High School) had eight kills.

Sophomore middle Bobbi Starkebaum (Haxtun, Colo.) had six kills and led MCC with four block assists. Leia Young (sophomore, Amarillo, Texas) had six kills and three block assists.

Sophomore Zoe Mulholland (Lander, Wyo.) led the passing attack with 39 assists.

"We need to continue to drive forward and not take any turns or going backwards," said Kobza. "Hopefully they can clear their brains and play good volleyball for the next four matches,"

Eastern Wyoming improves to 3-7 on the year, MCC falls to 6-2

On Friday MCC will continue in the tournament with a noon game against Northeast CC (5-3) followed with a 6 p.m. match against Butler Community College (2-4). The tournament has two matches at 2 p.m. including North Platte against Iowa Western and Northeast CC vs. Eastern Wyoming; at 4 p.m. Eastern Wyoming plays Butler and Northwestern plays North Platte. The other 6 p.m. match is Northwestern vs. Iowa Western.

On Saturday the Lady Indians will play Northwest College (Wyoming), (4-4) at 11 a.m. followed by a 1 p.m. match against Iowa Western Community College (5-3). Early matches start at 9 a.m. when Eastern Wyoming plays Iowa Western and Butler plays Northwestern, the other 11 a.m. match is Eastern Wyoming against North Platte. The other 1 p.m. match is Butler against on North Platte.