MCC spikers take three from Southeast

The McCook Community College volleyball team outlasted Southeast CC-Beatrice in five games Wednesday night at True Hall Gymnasium.

The Indians defeated the Bruins 33-35, 30-28, 27-30, 30-24, 15-12 and improved to 3-5.

MCC won just three matches in 2006 and finished 3-41.

"I thought that our girls came out strong and they built up a big lead in the first game (24-15) and then got a little bit lazy in defense and we missed a lot of serves and let them back in the game eventually

"Southeast won the first game," said coach Gary Payne. "You have to give credit to Southeast, who were unbeaten at 7-0. They fought back hard even though they were down big in the first game and went on and won that first game 35-33.

"Game 2 was a little bit of the same, we took a big lead, and let them back in it, but this time we were able to hold them off and get that second game win.

"Games 3 and 4 were about the same with one team getting a lead and the other team fighting back and taking over the lead, but we were able to split those games with them and take it to a deciding Game 5.

"In Game 5, Southeast came out strong along with a couple of our errors built up an 8-3 lead when we switched sides. After Southeast built an 11-5 lead Ashley Cordova went back and served up 4 straight points to cut the lead to 12-9.

"With a quick side out and the score at 12-10, Whitney Hochstetler went back and finished them off with 5 straight points to seal the victory. Game 5 really showed me something last night. It showed me that our girls have a lot of heart and desire to get out there and prove that we are a good team and that we are a team that won't just lay down a give up when the chips are stacked against us.

"At first I didn't think our girls played all that well, but after looking at the stats, we had a pretty good match last night.

"I still think that there is a lot of room for improvement and I hope our girls realize how good they can be. I still have to give credit to Southeast too, they play a great game last night and gave us all we could handle.

"They are a much improved team over last year and I think Kelli Tucker has done an excellent job preparing there girls for competition."

MCC travels to Dodge City, Kan., Friday to take on the host Dodge City CC Conquistadors and the Sterling College junior varsity. Matches start at 3 p.m.

McCook competes in the Colby CC Invitational Saturday.

MCC Stats

Chelsey Quigley 50 of 54 with 18 kills

Lacey Parker 34 of 41 with 16 kills

Cayla Skaritka 37 of 49 with 16 kills

Whitney Hochstetler 19 of 21 with 10 kills

Sam Brown 16 of 19 with 8 kills

Digs

Kelsey Kathman had 23 digs

Chelsey Quigley had 21 digs

Cayla Skaritka had 19 digs

Whitney Hochstetler had 12 digs

Ashley Cordova, Tara Long, Lacey Parker had 11 digs each

MCC set a school record for digs in a match with 115 digs, which broke last year's record of 102 digs against Eastern Wyoming.

Serving:

Lacey Parker was 23 of 26 with 3 aces

Ashley Cordova was 24 of 27 with 2 aces

Chelsey Quigley was 14 of 17 with 2 aces

Setting:

Tara Long was 119 of 122 with 39 assists

Sharyn Cape was 63 of 64 with 20 assists

Blocking:

Whitney Hochstetler had 5 assisted blocks

Cayla Skaritka, Tara Long, Lacey Parker, Chelsey Quigley each had 1 solo block and 3 assisted blocks.

MCC had 12 blocks as a team.