Greyhounds’ hot play continues in pair of wins

Hot and cold faced each other at Iola Wednesday night with Fort Scott Community College’s volleyball team continuing its blazing play with a 25-16, 25-15, 25-16 sweep of Allen in the final match of Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division play.

The Greyhounds finished in a tie for fifth place with Neosho County at 5-5 in the East but the Panthers hold a tie-breaker. Nonetheless, Fort Scott has worked its way into post-season play after it looked as though doing to would be a struggle less than a month ago. Allen lost in conference play for the 35th consecutive time and finished last at 0-10.

On October 3, after being swept by then No. 1-ranked Johnson County, the Greyhounds were 1-5 in conference play and 10-11 overall. But since then, they have won 15 of their last 17 matches, including a Thursday-night non-conference win at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, to finish the regular season with a 25-13 mark.

Thursday’s win in Miami, Okla., a 22-25, 25-13, 26-24, 25-23 victory, was Fort Scott’s fifth straight. No other details from that match were available at press time.

In Wednesday’s match, Brittany Barnekoff converted attacks at a .600 rate, getting 16 kills in 25 chances. Mykah Wingerter finished with 12 kills. Fort Scott had a .337 kill percentage while Allen’s was .035.

Sophie Mader handed out 35 assists. Abbie Casper came up with 25 digs while Emily Jackson added 15.

Allen hasn’t won a conference match since beating Labette in the 2015 season opener. The Red Devils have won three of their last 42 conference matches going back to 2014.

The brackets for post-season play will not be determined before Wednesday as Coffeyville and Highland — the division’s top two teams — will square off Tuesday at Highland to see which earns the No. 1 seed in post-season play and the conference championship. The Region VI Tournament will be played October 2 and 3 at either Coffeyville or Highland.