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'Hound volleyball starts season 4-0
Last season, Fort Scott Community College's volleyball team won five matches.
Last weekend at Arnold Arena, new head coach Lindsay Hill began her tenure by going 4-0 at the Greyhounds' home tournament.
"We looked better today than we have all pre-season," Hill said. "We really pulled it together this weekend. We still have a long way to go. We still have things we need to fix. But we looked very good."
Friday's scores saw Fort Scott defeat Labette 25-13, 25-15, 28-26, and Cottey (Mo.) 25-8, 25-15, 25-23.
"The first two games of each match, we played very, very well," Hill said of Friday's play. "The third game, we kind of coasted. That was what we were trying to focus on (Saturday), making sure we didn't coast through that third game and finish it off."
In Saturday's first match, a 25-22, 25-23, 25-21 sweep of Coffeyville, the Greyhounds had to overcome a 4-point deficit, 19-15, to take the first game. They had to fight off a Red Raven rally in the second game, trailing 23-22 after Coffeyville went on a 6-2 run. The 'Hounds scored the last three points of the game with Taylyn Schwartz's ace scoring the final point.
Fort Scott led the third game 21-16 before Coffeyville scored 5 straight to tie it. Paula Okrutna, a freshman from Poland, helped the 'Hounds prevail by scoring 3 of the last 4 points on a block and 2 kills.
Okrutna has 12 kills for Fort Scott while Heather Greer, one of just two returning sophomores, added 6. Schwartz dished 22 assists and Ali Cure recorded 2 blocks.
In the final match, Fort Scott defeated Allen, 25-17, 25-12, 25-21. The 'Hounds scored 6 of the last 8 points of the first match, ending it on a Greer kill. They used a 16-3 run to go up 19-8 on the Red Devils in the second game. Allen rallied in the third game to get within 3 points after being down 23-15. But Amber Thomas' kill ended the match.
Okrutna had 12 kills and 4 assists for the Greyhounds while Greer had 10 kills and Thomas finished with 7. Schwartz recorded 26 assists.
"I think for the most part, everybody did their job, which was what we wanted," Hill said. "Paula really stepped up. She gave us the points we needed from her. My setter, Taylyn, did a great job in running the offense."
Coffeyville finished second in the tournament with a 3-1 record. Labette was third at 2-2, Allen third at 1-3 and Cottey went winless in the round-robin tournament.
The Greyhounds are in for a busy week. Wednesday, they open Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division play with a 5 p.m. match at Highland. Thursday, they'll travel to Vernon, Texas, to play a match against Vernon College at 7 p.m, then stay there to play in Vernon's tournament over the weekend.