Cottey Comets lose to Stephens College in four

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The Stephens College Stars defeated the Cottey College volleyball team, 3-1, Saturday afternoon, 26-24, 25-23, 25-9, 25-17, with the Comets' only win of the day coming in the second set.

Head coach Marla Kannady Foreman was both pleased and disappointed in her team. She was disappointed they lost the match, especially game one, after leading 14-6, but pleased they played so well against a four-year NAIA school.

Foreman said, "How can I be overly upset when my NJCAA Division II team was playing a NAIA level college, and making it respectfully close in the first two games with them?"

Game one looked like the Comets were going to take it to the Stars as they jumped out to a 14-6 lead early. A time out gave Stephens the opportunity to catch its breath and regroup, however, and soon, the home team had a 5-1 run to pull within 15-11. The Stars kept the pressure on as they found themselves a single point behind at 21-20. The Comets were up 24-23 and serving for game point when Stephens went on a 3-0 run to snatch victory away from the Comets.

Cottey seemed focused in game two as they were able to hold a slim lead in a tightly-contested game. The scores were 22-19, 24-22, 24-23, and finally, 25-23 as the Comets held on for the win.

The Comets of the first two games were somewhere else in game three as Stephens jumped out to a quick 10-3 lead and totally dominated Cottey in a 25-9 rout.

"We couldn't do anything right, for the most part, as you can see by the score," said Foreman. "Our serve receive was pretty decent the first two games, but left us in game three. We had been working really hard in practice on that and it was paying off, at least the first two games. We had 14 kills in game one and 13 in game two, but could only muster up three for game three. You aren't going to beat an NAIA level program on three kills."

The Comets had a better passing game in game four, but still struggled with serve receive as Stephens built another early lead at 15-10. Cottey played pretty evenly with the Stars the rest of the way, but could never close the gap as the home team closed out the match for the win.

Foreman noted, however, that Stephens, a four-year school, had seven seniors and four juniors on their roster and put more experienced players on the floor against Cottey.

"I am not making excuses for my players, but they were also up against 11 players that had more years of experience," Foreman said. "They only had one freshman and two sophomores on their roster, yet we made a four-game day out of it."

Kailey Kelly and Natalie Larsen scored a pair of aces for the Comets. Kelly led the team with 11 kills and Larsen led with 16 assists. Ashley Helm had 18 digs and eight kills and Emily Moore was credited with 17 digs. Amanda Taylor had a good match with seven kills and eight blocks.

The loss dropped the Comets to 1-3 on the season. The Comets were scheduled to take on Central Bible College at Hinkhouse Gymnasium. Full coverage of that match will appear in tomorrow's edition of the Daily Mail.