Fort Scott rallies to overtake Lady Blue Devils 3-2 in regular season finale
by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College played arguably the most difficult NJCAA Division II schedule in the nation this fall.
“You can’t get to be the best if you don’t play the best,” said KCKCC coach Mary Bruno, whose Blue Devils played four of the nation’s top seven ranked team – No. 2 Parkland, No. 4 Coffeyville, No. 5 Lincoln Land and No. 7 Cowley College.
Whether or not playing many of the nation’s best can get the Lady Blue Devils a return to the NJCAA national tournament will be determined this Saturday in District N playoff action at Highland.
The No. 7 seed, the Blue Devils (13-14) will take on host Highland, the No. 2 seed with a 30-11 record while No. 3 Cowley College (35-6) will meet No. 6 Fort Scott (26-9) in the other semifinal. The KCKCC-Highland opener is tentatively scheduled for 10 a.m. with Cowley vs. Fort Scott at noon.
Also Saturday, the District M playoffs will be played at Coffeyville with No. 1 Coffeyville (38-2) facing No. 8 Labette (14-21) and No. 4 Neosho County (27-11) clashing with No. 5 Johnson County (15-16). The winners of the two districts will both advance to the national tournament.
Fort Scott wrote a disappointing end to the Blue Devils’ regular season Monday, taking a 3-2 decision after KCKCC had taken a 2-0 lead on 25-18, 25-20 wins.
However, the Lady Greyhounds took a 25-23 win in a pivotal third set, evened the match 25-20 and then won the final set 15-12. It was the fifth straight win for Fort Scott and eighth in the last 10.
The loss enabled Fort Scott (5-5) to nudge KCKCC (4-6) into sixth place in Division II of Region VI.
Unbeaten Coffeyville (10-0) claimed the championship followed by Highland and Cowley, both 8-2; Johnson County (7-3) and Neosho County (6-4) and every one of the six teams that finished ahead of KCKCC were ranked in the nation’s Top 20 at one time or another during the season.