Box Score Mike Saddler, Sports Information Director
The Neosho County Panthers entered Wednesday night's match with No. 1 ranked Cowley riding a school record 19 match win streak and looking to beat the Tigers for the first time since 2006. Cowley had other plans, however, as they handed the Panthers their first loss in over a month 25-13, 25-23, 25-23.
Cowley came out in the first set and opened a quick 3-0 lead, but the Panthers would regroup and pull within a point as they trailed 10-9. Cowley would then make a 5-0 run to take a 6 point lead. The Tigers would outscore the Panthers 15-4 after Neosho cut their lead to 1 and cruised to a win in the first set.
Neosho would regroup, and the 2
nd set would be a tight one the entire way. The teams traded points back and forth before Cowley finally took a 2 point lead at 12-10. They would open up the largest lead of the set at 16-12 but Neosho again fought back to take the lead with a 5-0 run forcing Cowley to use a timeout. The teams would once again trade points before Cowley pulled away to take the 2
nd set 25-23.
The 3
rd set was much like the 2
nd as neither team could pull away early. The Panthers took a 10-7 lead but Cowley battled back and the set was ties at 15 before going on a run of their own to take a 23-18 lead. With their 19 match win streak on the line, the Panthers wouldn't go away quietly as they went on a 6-1 run to pull within one at 24-23 forcing the Tigers into a timeout. Cowley would come out of the timeout and finish the match off with a 25-23 win.
Rosemerli Carrillo was the only Panther to reach double digits in kills as she finished with 11 for the match while hitting .300.
Whitney Gifford tallied 23 digs in the match.
Laura Broadfoot added 12 digs to go with 30 assists for her 10
th double double of the season.
The loss drops the Panthers to 25-6 overall and 6-2 in conference play. Their next action will be October 23 when they host Fort Scott Community College. The match will be Breast Cancer Awareness night and a portion of the proceeds from the match will be donated to cancer research.
