Cottey falls short at home

By Jason Peake

Daily Mail Sports Editor

NEVADA -- The Cottey College women's volleyball team had all of the momentum on its side.

But visiting Ozark Christian College stole it away.

And the Ambassadors never relinquished it.

Ozark Christian defeated Cottey 3-1 on Monday night at Hinkhouse Gymnasium, winning 25-27, 25-11, 25-18, 25-9.

The host Comets looked solid early and won the first set, but OCC got going and swept the next three sets to pull out the victory.

"We got off to a great start, but right now, our confidence and energy level is lacking greatly," Cottey Coach Marla Kannady Foreman said. "We made things happen in game one, but it was short-lived. It just seems like anything our opponent does to us easily shifts our confidence level and energy. That's got to stop. We're not going to go anywhere if it doesn't."

The Comets got off to a stellar start to the match, as kills by Lindsey Aldridge, Kristina Coverdell and Katelin Crane, along with a block at the net by Taylor McCue, gave Cottey a 12-5 lead in the first set.

The Comets got two aces by Sam Pierce and a kill by Aldridge and pulled away at 23-12.

But just as it looked like the Comets were going to cruise to the victory, the Ambassadors rallied. Ozark scored 12 of the next 13 points and the set was tied at 24.

After the teams traded points, Cottey blocked an Ozark kill attempt at the net and then Coverdell's kill gave the Comets a 27-25 win.

But after that, it was all Ozark. With all of the momentum, OCC led 13-3 in the second set en route to the 25-11 win. The Ambassadors found success by hitting down the lines from the outside.

The third set was back and forth early and was tied at 14. But Ozark pulled away with five-straight points and won 25-18.

The fourth set was all OCC. The Ambassadors led 10-2 and 18-8 en route to the 25-9 win, as Cottey struggled defensively.

"We couldn't score 10 points against a team that we beat in game one?" Foreman asked out loud. "It's a confidence thing. It's monkey ball."

Ozark Christian improves to 11-1.

Cottey falls to 2-9 on the season with the loss. The Comets are back in action Wednesday night at Longview. The team will also compete this weekend in Lee's Summit.

Foreman said her team will get back to work at today's practice, with hopes of making progress.

Said Foreman: "We're going to work on some things this week, and we'll find out who wants to play."

Comets fall to Stephens

The Comets traveled to Columbia on Friday night to take on Stephens College. The home team was able to defeat the Comets in three sets 25-20, 25-17, 25-10.

The Comets were competitive early with Stephens, a four-year NAIA college, particularly in game one.

Although trailing much of that game, the Comets were never far behind, trailing 15-19, and 17-22, before the Stars closed out the win.

In set two, the Stars used their experience to pull away early, grabbing 9-3 and 18-10 leads. However, the Comets played even with the Stars from that point on.

Game three, however, was a different matter entirely, as the Comets did little right in that game.

"No matter what was said at the time outs, no matter how hard the players talked to each other and tried to encourage, we could just not get it together," said coach Foreman, "and things went from bad to worse in no time. After the match, we went to the locker room for a chat. I don't normally visit with my team after a road trip match. I usually wait for us to get on the bus to discuss the games. However, on Friday night, I felt like we needed to get in the locker room, work out whatever was ailing us, and move on. I didn't want that big dark cloud haunting us for very long."

Aldridge had eight kills, while Pierce and Coverdell had four apiece.

McCue had seven assists and Alexis Self added six. Erica Wagenknecht served two aces and Rachel Massey had 16 digs. McCue and Pierce chipped in eight digs.