Tigers sweep league opener, home finale

Friday, September 25, 2015
Fort Scott sophomore Kharsyn Dwyer (center) and senior Jenna Kakas go up to block a kill attempt by Coffeyville's Andre'a Newton during play at the FSHS gymnasium Thursday evening. Senior Ashley Cook (far left) and Coffeyville's Allie Wilson (20) and Abby Reardon (21) await the outcome of the play. The Tigers defeated the visiting Golden Tornado in three sets. (Scott Nuzum/Tribune)

Thursday evening, Fort Scott High's volleyball team played its first Southeast Kansas League games of the season. These were also the last home matches of the season. So that meant it was also Senior Parent Night. And since there are no home matches in October, it was also Dig Pink Night, when the Tigers wore pink uniforms for breast cancer awareness.

The Tigers (2-0 SEK, 11-9 overall) needed three games to beat an improving Coffeyville program, 25-27, 25-17, 25-10. They beat Parsons, 25-12, 25-19 in the final match of the evening. In between, Parsons rallied from one set down to get by the Golden Tornado, 13-25, 25-21, 25-19.

Coffeyville (0-2, 7-6) came into the match on a 24-match league losing streak and the program has lost 70 of its previous 74 matches overall. But second-year Tornado head coach Megan Abbott has guided the team to significant improvement.

"This is the best Coffeyville team I've seen in my nine years," Fort Scott head coach Carol Bingesser said. "She's turned them around. They know how to run an offense. They know how to cover. And they have some great hitters."

The Tigers led a great part of the first set, going on an 8-2 run to take an 18-13 lead when sophomore Kharsyn Dwyer knocked a free ball down to the floor.

But the Nado scored 5 straight to tie the set. The lead changed hands a couple of times. A kill by Andre'a Newton put Coffeyville up 26-25 and a Tiger error gave the Tornado the set.

Fort Scott scored 7 of the first 8 points of the second set only to see Coffeyville come back to take a 14-13 lead.

Fort Scott scored the next 9 points to take the lead back at 22-14. A Karlee Stanley ace closed out the set to tie the match.

"I think we still had the 'Old Coffeyville' mentality and thought it would be easy," Bingesser said. "It wasn't easy at all. We had to work hard and battle back to get there."

The Tigers found their focus in the third set, going out to a 10-1 lead and leading by as much as 20-4 after Amanda Hale's ace.

The Nado found a brief surge at the end, but Dwyer got block on a Coffeyville hit to end the match.

Dwyer had 14 kills and 2 solo blocks for the Tigers. Senior Ashley Cook added 8 kills and classmate Jenna Kakas had 6. Cook dealt 10 assists while junior Karlee Stanley led in that area with 11. Dywer had 2 blocks and Cook served 2 aces. Junior Makayla Robinson came up with 12 digs, senior libero Katie Gorman had 9 and junior Emily Hale finished with 6.

"Ashley had some great hits," Bingesser said. "Jenna had some big hits, too. Our senior stepped up and I thought they played well."

Parsons (1-1, 4-13) wasn't able to sustain its offense in the first set, never holding serve for more than one point -- and that only happened three times. Fort Scott led 6-1 and 11-3. The Tigers also had a 7-1 run to make it 19-7, A. Cook scoring the last 2 points with a kill and a block.

The first set ended with a Hale kill. The Vikings, though, started the second set tougher. They scored 5 straight points to go up 6-2.

After trading serves for a while, the Tigers scored 6 straight, making it 14-10 on a Kakas kill.

Fort Scott led 20-12 before Parsons began to make some progress. But this was another case of too little, too late for the Vikes.

"It was still kind of sluggish," Bingesser said. "But it's still two big league wins. They might not have been pretty.

"We have to get things turned around because we play agains Saturday at Louisburg and we won't see anything like this at Louisburg."

A. Cook and Kakas each had 6 kills for the Tigers. Senior Maddie McCoy and sophomore Madison Cook had 4 each.

Cook handed out 15 assists while Stanley dished 10. Gorman had 10 digs.

Play at Louisburg begins at 8 a.m. Saturday.

NOTES -- Coffeyville last won a league match on Oct. 14, 2010, against Columbus, which is no longer a member of the SEK....