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'Hounds struggle but still sweep Labette
One of the teams playing at Arnold Arena Wednesday night came into play on a 13-match winning streak and had just moved up two spots in the NJCAA Division II national volleyball poll to No. 13. But if one had gone into the building with no knowledge of the teams, they wouldn't have been blamed if they couldn't tell which one it was.
Fort Scott Community College came out slow against Labette in each set of this Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division match, yet managed to sweep the visiting Cardinals, 25-23, 25-23, 25-17, for their 14th straight win. Earlier in the day, the Greyhounds (3-1 East, 20-2 overall) moved up two spots from No. 15 in the national poll.
Greyhound head coach Lindsay Hill, who has won at least 20 matches for the third time in her four-year tenure, was wary that her squad would overlook the Cardinals (2-3, 8-11), who are coached by her former assistant, Marisa Jordan.
"We had a big discussion this week about how we couldn't come out just because we're 19-2 and think this was going to be an easy match," Hill said. "And somewhere along the way, we didn't come out with a competitive spirit. So we had a long talk about that after the match.
"We didn't compete. At all. We came out kind of lazy."
Fort Scott led early in the first set by a 6-3 score but Labette rallied and then kept it close the rest of the way. The Cards tied the score four times before going ahead 16-15.
Labette led 19-16 before Molly Hothan, the Eastern Division Player of the Week for last week, put an end to the run with a kill. But then the 'Hounds only managed tie the score before Labette scored 4 of 7 to go up 23-22.
Labette errors cost them the set. A bad serve gave service back to Fort Scott and tied the score 23-23. Two more errors allowed the 'Hounds to take the set.
"We had to get to 20 points before we were ready to play," Hill said. "We've got to get through that and compete from the very first point, no matter who's across the net from us. I'm hoping that this was a good lesson."
The Cardinals held a 4-0 lead in the second set. And 6-1. And 7-2. Then the 'Hounds finally began to play somewhat up to their normal level. Three straight kills by Brandi Huesman tied the set at 10-10 and Fort Scott eventually found itself up 15-12.
But then Labette scored 5 in a row to reclaim the lead. A Julia Stringer kill gave serve back to Fort Scott and started a 5-0 run which made it 20-17.
The Cards got back within 23-21 and then were within 24-23 before Stringer got a kill to close out that set.
Fort Scott appeared momentarily to be back on form at the beginning of the third set, going out to a 7-4 lead. But Labette would find a way to rally, getting within 7-6, then within 11-10.
The Greyhounds led only 13-11 before Huesman got a spike down to the floor to start an 8-2 run. They extended it to 22-14 but Labette scored 3 in a row.
A serve into the net gave service back to the 'Hounds and Labette errors gave Fort Scott its final 2 points of the match.
Sherri Middleton led Fort Scott with 9 kills while Huesman finished with 7. Terina Harris led in digs with 8 for the match and Kortney Blaufuss handed out 22 assists but both of those totals were well below their per-set averages (4.99 digs/set for Harris, 10.95 assists/set for Blaufuss).
"When Kourtney's not on, we're not great," Hill said. "Our setter didn't do a great job of getting the ball to the (attack) windows. She's the key to our winning right now, getting our hitters one-on-one attacks. Our passing wasn't great, which in turn made our setting not great. Hopefully, we can change that before Neosho."
Neosho County is Fort Scott's next opponent. The Jayhawk East match will be played in Chanute starting at 6:30 p.m. Monday night.