Lady Indians drop pair of Friday games in tournament

The McCook Community College volleyball team dropped two matches Friday in the MCC Labor Day Weekend Tournament. The Lady Indians fell to Northeast Community College 3-2 and lost the second game to Butler Community College 3-1.

 

“This was not the start of the tournament we wanted,” said MCC Coach Hayley Kobza. “I think going back last weekend to those two losses at Texas we’ve kind of been battling our minds because I don’t think the issue is a physical skill I think it’s a mind skill.”

 

After winning six straight games to start the season, MCC has lost five straight to fall to 6-5 on the season. On Saturday MCC will play Northwestern (Wyoming) at 11 a.m. followed with a 1 p.m. match against Iowa Western Community College.

 

“We have to work on wanting to be competitors instead of playing to not lose,” said Kobza. “Hopefully Saturday we can come into the day with a better mentality about the game. I think we need to make a few changes because we need to be improving as the season goes on. Right now I feel like we’re just too much up and up and down.”

 

GAME 1 – Northeast CC 3, MCC 2: The Hawks dropped the first two sets 19-25, 6-25, then won three straight sets, 25-15, 27-25, 16-14.

 

After MCC won the first two sets, the NCC got off to a 5-0 start in the third set, took a 9-3 lead and cruised to their first win of the match.

 

MCC responded leading 9-4 in the fourth set, led 13-7, and 22-18 but NCC scored four straight to tie the match at 22 before closing out with a 5-3 run to tie the match at a set apiece.

 

The Lady Indians scored five of the first six points in the fifth set and led 9-6 but the Hawks outscored MCC 10-5 to close out the set and secure the win.

 

Freshman Jade Powell (Sterling, Colo.) led the Lady Indians with 15 kills. Freshman Maggie Fiene (Murray, Neb | Conestoga High School) had 11 kills with three assist blocks.

 

Relebohile Phamotse (freshman, Maseru, Lesotho) had nine kills, three assist blocks and one solo block. Sophomore Leia Young (Amarillo, Texas) had nine kills with one assist block. Bobbi Starkebaum (sophomore, Haxtun, Colo.) was credited with six kills, three assist blocks and a solo block.

 

Freshman Cheyanne Ortiz (Pueblo, Colo.) had 27 set assists and sophomore Zoe Mulholland (Lander, Wyo.) had 13.

 

GAME 2 – Butler CC 3, MCC 1: The Grizzlies won 25-22, 23-25, 25-21 and 25-19.

 

Jade Powell led MCC with 11 kills to go along with two assist blocks and one service ace. Relebohile Phamotse contributed 10 kills with three assist blocks and one solo block.

 

Leia Young had seven kills, and two block asssits. Maggue Fiene had three kills and Bobbi Starkebaum had two kills, two assist blocks and one solo block.

 

Up-to-date information about MCC volleyball including up-to-date schedule and changes, livestream links for home games, rosters, photos, statistics and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com