The Neosho County Community College volleyball team snapped a four-game losing streak Monday night when the Panthers swept Friends University JV 3-0 (25-7, 25-16 and 25-18).
"Anytime you can get back to the win column it's nice," Coach Asya Herron said. "It was good for us to get the win and build some confidence back. We put them away early, and we didn't play around with them."
The Panthers jumped out to a 5-0 advantage in the first set, and Neosho County never let it's foot off the gas, until freshman Rianne Richard tallied the match's final kill.
"Friends was missing some players," Herron said. "They've had some injuries, and it's that time in their season where it's tough because they can only play so many JV/varsity games. So they were a little bit limited."
NCCC had nine players record at least one kill in the match.
The dominating performance allowed Herron to play athletes that haven't had much of a chance to see the floor, and it gave the the coach a chance to work on some new things.
"We are a young squad so anytime I can get more kids in and get them more experience is good," Herron explained. "All season we've moved kids around. We have a versatile group. It also gives us a chance to work on somethings that we've worked on in practice, but haven't had a chance to implement in a game yet."
Sophomore Jill Starling led the team with 12 kills, while freshmen Kylie Foster, Kaelyn Yeoman and Richard added six apiece. Starling also recorded a team-high 24 set assists, while freshman Haley Slade dished out 15.
Defensively, freshman Taryn Stroble led the Panthers with 21 digs, while sophomore Chesney Vaughn and Starling added 15 and 11, respectively.
Now the Panthers (23-13 overall and 3-5 in the KJCCC) attention turns to Labette County Community College (6-23 and 1-7), a team which Neosho County has already beaten twice in 2015.
"They are much improved from the beginning of the season," Herron said. "It's a conference game, which is something not to be taken lightly. The more you see a team, the harder it gets to beat them."
Herron added,"The key will be to shut down the middle, Auriana Jackson. Hopefully, it'll be another game that gives us some confidence heading into the (Region VI) District Tournament the following week."
The Panthers could end up as either a No. 7 or 8 seed at districts depending on how things play out around the conference this week, according to Herron.
First serve is set for 6:30 pm Wednesday on the campus of Neosho County Community College.