Comets drop three-set match to Independence

The Cottey Comets fell Tuesday night in a three-set road match to Independence (Kan.) Community College. Cottey dropped the first set 25-18. Independence surged in the second set, winning convincingly 25-12, before completing the sweep with a close 25-22 third-set victory. The loss drops the Comets to 2-4 overall.

“In the first set we got ourselves down 6-1 before we got to work and started to compete with the opponent,” said Comets head coach Marla Kannady-Foreman.” Once we stepped it up, we stayed right along neck-and-neck with them, except at the end of the first set when we allowed them to rally five points to our two.”

Kannady-Foreman, however, indicated she was not pleased with her team’s second set performance.

“I am not even sure if my team showed up for the second set,” said Kannady-Foreman.

“We were so out of system on a constant basis, and had six of our 11 (total) serve-receive errors in the set, which makes it very hard to play catch up.”

Independence opened the second set on a 7-0 blitz and, reeled off five consecutive points midway through the set.

“That makes it very hard to play catch-up,” noted Kannady, adding her team played up to its capabilities in the third set.

“We traded points back-and-forth and only gave up one five-point run at the beginning, in which we quickly recovered and even took the lead,” she said. “To Independence’s credit, they have a strong server that gets away with some point-runs and even aces. Her serve doesn’t look like it has much on it, but if you are the recipient it’s tough to see where the ball lifts or floats just as it crosses the net, which makes it harder to stay in-system.”

Added Kannady-Foreman: “I feel like on another day, we would be able to beat Independence. Our passing was down, along with consistent passing and always getting to the block; and we will be working on that in practice this week to prepare for Friday’s match. I was pleased to see us capable of having some pretty decent rallies with Independence as well.”

For Cottey, sophomore Lily Brockus led the way with 20 digs and two aces, while freshman Emily Killion chipped in 11 kills and a block. Additionally for the Comets, freshman Anna Walley finished with eight kills, a block and a team-hitting percentage of 42 percent.

Team totals for the Comets included 51 digs, six players with at least one kill and four aces. Areas that hurt the Comets, were six serving errors, 11 serve-receive errors and seven ball-handling errors.

Home opener

After a half-dozen road matches to open the season, the Comets make their debut at Hinkhouse Center tonight, as Cottey matches up at 6:30 p.m. with (Longview) Metropolitan Community College.