by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College’s 2018 volleyball season came to an end Saturday but not before the Lady Blue Devils landed the biggest Jayhawk Conference upset blow in recent years.
Athletic Director Tony Tompkins called it “Awesome.”
“Fantastic,” agreed coach Mary Bruno-Ballou in the wake of KCKCC’s stunning 3-2 win over No. 3 Highland, much to the dismay of a partisan home crowd in a raucous, jam-packed Highland gymnasium.
Just five days earlier, the No. 3 ranked Scotties had staked their claim to the No. 1 ranking with a 3-0 home court thrashing of Coffeyville.
The win sealed the Jayhawk East championship and No. 1 seed in the District M pairings for the Lady Scotties, who came into the playoffs with 24 straights wins after their only losses to No. 1 Parkland and No. 4 Johnson County,
But that was before taking on a gutsy gang of Lady Blue Devils, who quieted the crowd with their best performance of the season.
Highland took the opening set 25-15 but visions of an easy romp to the district finals were quickly dispelled as the Blue Devils took command. Trailing 12-5 in the second set, KCKCC rallied for a 25-23 win and then jumped in front 10-5 in a 25-18 third set win.
Highland got the match back to even with a 25-22 fourth set win before KCKCC surged to 6-3 and 8-4 leads on the way to a 15-10 clinching win.
“Every time Highland would get some momentum, we’d have some one step up and score,” Tompkins said.
Bruno-Ballou said a switch offensively from a 6-2 to a 5-1 was the key to the Blue Devils’ comeback in the second set.
“We were down seven points and rallied as a group. We played awesome. Our four attackers, three of them freshmen, combined for 53 kills.”
Amilex Ayala had 16 kills, Tara Mattingly 13 and Allayah Stillwell and sophomore Randi Johnson 12 each. Sophomore Kelsey Rankin led in assists with 47 while Lopez added 21 and sophomore Libero Kelli Sleefe 18.
The win sent KCKCC into the championship against No. 4 Johnson County, who had to rally for a 3-2 win over Neosho County. The Cavaliers dropped the first two sets 25-18, 25-21 before winning the final three 25-12, 25-21, 15-10.
That set up a championship match that started at 10 p.m. After taking a 25-17 opening win, JCCC (27-7) held on 25-23 in the second set and then won the third 25-14 and a berth in the national tournament.
“We were up by five points in the second game but let Johnson creep back in,” Bruno-Ballou said. “We were not able to maintain the same intensity and focus as we did against Highland.”
The final match did not end until nearly midnight but Bruno-Ballou refused to blame the late start for the loss.
“We had a four-hour wait, time to refuel but it was also four hours since we had played. But it was a great atmosphere in which to play,” she said.
The loss ended KCKCC’s season at 19-16. The best season in history for Highland, the Scotties finished 34-3.
JCCC will be joined by No. 1 ranked Coffeyville in the NJCAA Division II national to be played in Charleston, West Virginia, Nov. 21-23. Coffeyville defeated Fort Scott 3-0 and No. 5 ranked Cowley College 3-2 in the District N playoffs.