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No. 15 Highland gives ’Hounds home setback
Fort Scott Community College’s volleyball team looked to have regained its form last weekend when it swept all four matches in three sets at the Neosho County Tournament last weekend.
But No. 15 Highland came to Arnold Arena Wednesday night and won the last three sets of a Jayhawk Conference-Division II match over the Greyhounds to give Fort Scott its third consecutive conference loss, 19-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-19.
It was also the second consecutive home loss for the Greyhounds, who are now in seventh place in the division at 2-3 with a 16-7 overall record. Highland is tied for second with Cowley at 5-1, 20-5 overall.
Deardin Kelley had six kills in the first set alone to lead the Greyhounds in a back-and-forth set. She made it 24-18 with a kill that rolled across the net and then fell on the Highland side. Then she scored the winning point when she got a kill off a free ball at the net.
The ’Hounds also held leads in the second set as Grace Graniewski and Brittany Barnekoff contributed some big plays on the front line. They held a 13-11 lead and a 15-13 advantage. But there, Highland went on an 11-3 run to go up 24-18.
Fort Scott refused to give in with Mykah Wingerter’s kill starting a 5-point run. Graniewski’s block brought the ’Hounds within 24-23 before an error gave the Scotties the set and tied the match.
Fort Scott held an 8-3 lead in the third set as Megan Turner made three straight kills and Barnekoff had a block for the last four points of that run. Highland rallied, scoring 5 straight to tie the match. Another 5-point run made it 13-9.
A Highland error gave Fort Scott its last lead of that set, 18-17. Another error moments later tied the set at 19-19. But the Scotties scored 6 of the last 8 to take the lead in the match.
Fort Scott held a 6-4 lead in the fourth set but things turned on an unusual call by the lead official. He ruled that a Greyhound set attempt was actually a push from the side of the ball, making it illegal. The Scotties scored 4 more points after the side out to go ahead, 9-6.
The Greyhounds were able to fight for a bit, getting back within 15-12 on a Highland error. But the Scotties scored 4 in a row, giving them a wide enough margin that although they didn’t have another big run, Fort Scott wasn’t able to catch up. A kill by Carrie Fisher concluded the match.
Turner finished the match with 13 kills for Fort Scott while Graniewski had 12 and Kelley added 10. Karlee Stanley was credited with 25 sets while Hannah White had 19. Katie Gorman came up with 25 digs while Turner had 15. Graniewski had 5 blocks.
Leslie Polanco and Zealia Kleitz finished with 14 kills each for Highland, which actually finished with a lower kill percentage for the match, .163 to Fort Scott’s .179.
Even though the Scotties won the match, the Greyhounds had the better numbers in the good stats — more kills (49-42), more assists (49-38), more digs (77-71) and more blocks (17-12). The bad news about that is that the ’Hounds also had more attack errors (25-18) and more service errors (8-4).
The Greyhounds are playing at the Central-Columbus Tournament this weekend in Columbus, Neb.
NOTES — Gorman, a 2016 Fort Scott High School graduate, leads the division in digs per set with 7.83, which is also third-best in the nation. She averages about 1.2 digs more than the conference’s next-best, Madison Miller of Neosho County....
Turner is third in the conference and 17th in the nation in kills per set with 3.58. Barnekoff is the division leader in blocks per set, 1.17....