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Cottey settles for split at home Tri-match
The Cottey College Comets volleyball team walked away with a 25-21, 25-20, 26-24 win over Wentworth, which was followed by a 25-21, 25-23, 25-12 defeat at the hands of Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College, at Saturday's Tri-Match on the Cottey campus.
The Comets are now 6-8 on the year.
"We figured out quickly what we needed to do against Wentworth," Cottey coach Marla Kannady-Foreman said. "And we made those changes to make it a three game match. This was the third time to play Wentworth, so we could talk about their strengths and weaknesses ahead of time and have a plan of attack."
Against Wentworth, Regan Kannady rang up 13 assists and 12 kills, while Kelsey Davidson checked in with 14 digs, 12 kills, and two aces. Morgan Taylor went for 9 digs and 4 kills.
Kannady-Foreman was impressed with the team's 30 kill performance against Wentworth, as well as the 48 overall digs and 7 aces.
However, she felt the team struggled in other areas, racking up 12 hitting errors, nine serve-receive errors, nine serving errors, and just two blocks.
The team hitting percentages were 24 percent, 14 percent, and 15 percent.
The second game pitted NEO against Wentworth. NEO took the match in four sets.
Cottey vs NEO match
In the third match, the Comets were swept by NEO 25-21, 25-23, 25-12.
"We were in this match with NEO the entire time, outside of what we were failing to do on the service line," Kannady-Foreman said. "We lost the first game to NEO by four points and had three serving errors.
"We lost game two by five points and had five serving errors. This was our worst day as far as serving errors so far this year. We had nine serving errors in our match against Wentworth, and then turned around and continued the saga, missing another eight against NEO."
Kannady-Foreman said the eight serving errors her team committed were difficult to overcome, especially against a quality opponent like NEO.
"I am pretty sure we haven't had that many serve errors all season in one match, especially a three-game match for both matches played," she said. "I told my players, that was the difference between a loss and a win against NEO."
Kannady-Foreman said she felt confident in her game planning prior to the match.
"I felt like we went in knowing exactly our plan of attack on them, and we had those things covered," she said. "Now we will never know how many points could have been won, with those lost serving errors."
Kannady-Foreman said NEO is not considered a part of Cottey's region as far as the regular season is concerned. However, NEO is involved in the post-season district and regional tournaments this year, as well as being included in the seeding tournament, which took place in part, in Miami, Okla., in late September.
"I told my team they can compete with these region schools this year," she said. "But we cannot throw games away on the service line or by the high number of hitting errors we sometimes come up with."
Kannady-Foreman said she addressed the service errors with her team during the NEO match.
"I hadn't addressed the service errors with my team until the start of our second match, and simply stated, 'we can't make errors on the service line against NEO,' thinking that the Wentworth game was just a fluke situation, and that we would resolve it by our next match," she said. "After missing three more in game one against NEO, I told my team that we would run for every missed serve starting with game two of NEO. Well, it just became a mental issue with them at that point, and they missed five more serves after their warning."
Kannady-Foreman said the team was coming off an extended period of rest due to mid-terms.
"However, that isn't always a bad thing," she said. "Most of the region schools we play have a greater number of matches compared to Cottey College. We simply can't function outside of the classroom that much, and still have our athletes be the student/athletes they should be.
"I felt this break was actually good for us to come back refreshed and ready to conquer the rest of the season on a more positive note. And having given time for the athletes to be academically strong as well."
Against NEO, Davidson replicated her numbers from the Wentworth game, with 14 digs and 12 kills, while Kannady had a solid performance with 13 assists and 8 kills. Maddie Lugenbeel chipped in with 10 assists and 6 digs.
"Our hitting percentages for this match were 23 percent, 15 percent, and zero percent," she said. "And yet, the 23 percent and 15 percent weren't enough to beat NEO. Their hitting percentage was higher for all three matches.
"We still averaged 10 kills per game for the whole day, but we are going to have to be stronger than that towards the end of the season. I think once Madelyn (Underwood) gets back in the swing of things, she will be able to add to the hitting in kill numbers. She is still getting used to coming back after three weeks out with a head injury, but she is doing well in practices."
Kannady-Foreman said some of the team's positive numbers during the NEO match, included: 30 total kills, two aces, only four serve-receive errors, and 44 digs. However, Cottey committed 15 hitting errors and only came up with three blocks.
Cottey plays at 6:30 p.m. today, in a road match against Ozark Christian College in Joplin. Cottey will then return home for Senior Night, at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, when they square off against Longview.
"Longview is our only match left for seeding purposes in the regional tournament," she said.