by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College will need help to get into the NJCAA DII volleyball playoffs.
KCKCC’s 3-1 loss at No. 10 ranked Highland Wednesday night coupled with Allen County’s stunning 3-2 upset of No. 11 ranked Cloud County dropped the Blue Devils (3-6) a game back of Allen (4-5) heading into the final games of the season next Wednesday.
The Blue Devils (17-13) host Hesston (12-15) at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday while Allen County (18-12) plays at Fort Scott (27-4), which just vaulted into No. 3 in the latest NJCAA DII rankings. A KCKCC win and Allen County loss would deadlock the two teams in a seventh place tie at 4-6 and vault the Blue Devils into the playoffs by virtue of a 3-1 KCKCC win in the only meeting of the two teams Sept. 18.
“It’s a must win game,” KCKCC coach Mary Bruno-Ballou said. “And we’re going to need a little help. Allen upsetting Cloud was a big surprise.”
The Blue Devils will have a little extra incentive in that the home finale will be Sophomore Night for eight sophomores – Tara Mattingly, Gracie Golay, Malaysia StClair, Lauren Leavendusky, Allayah Stillwell, Natalia Vega Aponte, Madison Wright and Amilex Lopez.
After losing 25-14 in the opening set at Highland Wednesday, the Blue Devils won the second set 25-21 before the Scotties closed out the match with 25-19, 25-20 decisions despite outstanding performances by the back line of Mattingly, Lopez, Wright and Aponte.
“Except for the first game, we were competitive,” Bruno-Ballou said. “We took a game from the No. 10 team in the country but as a team we’re still making too many unforced errors. But the beauty of unforced errors is that they can be corrected. We continuing to improve. Our players continue to work hard and that’s all I can ask.”