Red Ravens stun Greyhounds in five

Thursday, September 29, 2011
Fort Scott's Ali Cure makes a play during a Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division dual with Coffeyville at Arnold Arena Wednesday night. Cure had 6 kills and 5 blocks but the Greyhounds lost in 5 games.

Running out to a 12-1 lead in the first game of a Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division match with Coffeyville at Arnold Arena Wednesday night, it appeared that the Greyhounds would enjoy a cakewalk over the visiting Red Ravens.

But once the Greyhounds lost their momentum they found it difficult to recapture and the Ravens slugged their way to a 5-game victory, 13-25, 27-25, 25-21, 29-31, 15-9.

Coffeyville (3-2 East, 11-10 overall) did not ever really seize control at any point. It had one run of more than 4 points in the entire match. The Ravens seldom scored more than 3 points at a time although they were able to do so three times in the final set,

Coffeyville scored the first point of the match. But Fort Scott (2-4, 15-6) scored the next 9. The Greyhounds' passing was working well, setter Taylyn Schwartz was setting nicely and hitters Heather Greer and Paula Okrutna -- who was named the KJCCC's Eastern Division Player of the Week last week -- were crushing the ball to the floor.

Coffeyville, meanwhile, couldn't hold serve. The Ravens scored just two points in the first game when they had the serve. Even as the Greyhounds began to slow down, the Ravens couldn't rally. Ali Cure finally put that first game away for the 'Hounds.

Coffeyville began to get Okrutna and Greer covered so Schwartz switched things up for a while, going to Amber Thomas. A couple of Thamara Silva aces along the way helped make it 19-13 for the 'Hounds in the second game.

But then Coffeyville put together its longest run of the night, scoring 6 straight to go ahead 24-22. Two Thomas kills tied the score at 24-24 ann another one tied it at 25-25. But a Raven kill and a Fort Scott error gave Coffeyville the win.

After trading serves for a while in the third game, Coffeyville scored 3 straight to go up 14-10. The "Hounds would not be able to reclaim the lead again and the Ravens found themselves up in the match, 2 games to 1.

Coffeyville led the fourth game, 19-16. But the momentum swung back to the 'Hounds briefly when every Fort Scott in the arena called for a tip on an Okrutna kill attempt that was initially called out. The line judge came up to the referee to confirm the tip and Arnold Arena erupted in support.

Fort Scott went back in front 21-20 but Pamela Lima started coming up big for the Ravens, getting kills that would help tie the match several times, the last at 29-29.

Okrutna tipped a ball over to the Coffeyville side for a kill to put Fort Scott back ahead and Silva served another ace to bring the 'Hounds back into a 2-2 tie for the match.

Coffeyville started out strong in the fifth set -- which would only need to go to 15 instead of 25 as the others did -- going up 6-2. The sides switched when the Ravens appeared to get the 8th point but the official called an illegal libero substitution -- the player the libero had entered for came back on the floor in the wrong position -- and point was given to Fort Scott.

This meant the sides had to switch back and instead of trailing 8-3 at the switch, the 'Hounds were only down 8-5. But they were not able to score another point while holding serve and Kelsey Broadwell's kill gave the match to Coffeyville.

Okrutna had 23 kills but only 9 in the last three games. Greer added 15 kills and Thomas had 12. Schwartz handed out 44 assists. Cure had 5 blocks.