The Highland Community College offensive attack landed just beyond the end baseline sending an already worked up crowd into a bigger frenzy as the Neosho County Community College Panthers sealed the come-from-behind 3-2 (22-25, 22-25, 25-23, 25-22 and 15-7) conference victory Wednesday night.

"We have the best crowd. Sometimes they start to leave after game three or four, but they stuck around for all five games against Longview and again tonight," Coach Asya Herron said. "Highland isn't used to playing in this kind of atmosphere. It rattled them a little bit."

The Panthers trailed 2-0 heading into what could have been a third and deciding set, but NCCC had something to say about that.

"We kept fighting. Things that weren't falling for us the first game started to fall in the second game," Herron said. "We started breaking them down a little bit after changing our lineup."

At that point in the game, neither team had been able to pull away by more than five points. The largest lead was a 6-1 advantage by the Scotties early in the second set.

Near the tail end of the first set, Mackenzie Brown went down with an injury, forcing the Panthers to adjust their lineup in the second.

"Anytime you loose one of your sophomores and go-to players, it takes a little bit to adjust," Herron said of her 5 foot, 10 inch middle blocker.

Neosho County took a brief 15-14 lead in the second set following sophomore setter Jill Starling's kill, but the visitors went on to win the set 25-22.

"The first two sets, we played well, but they played better," Herron said. "It was all about the little adjustments thoughout that brought energy. Nothing touched the ground the final three sets, and that's the difference. We played great defense."

In the third set, the Panthers fell behind 11-7 before they mounted a comeback.

The Panthers took the lead for good courtesy of a serving ace by freshman defensive specialist Taryn Stroble at 22-21. Freshman Sabrina Ebarb tallied a kill and a block point to lock up the set three victory.

In the fourth set, Highland scored first off a four-hit possession by Neosho County, but freshman outside hitter Rianne Richard put the Panthers up 2-1 with one of her four kills. 

NCCC never trailed again the remainder of the evening.

Herron praised two of her bench players – Ebarb and freshman Jessie Roukema – after the game for stepping up and filling in for Brown.

"(Ebarb) brings fire and intensity," she said. "Jessie came in and did the same thing, and that was game changing for us."

They went on to win set four 25-22 to force a fifth game, which the Panthers jumped out to a 7-3 lead and set sail to a 15-7 win claiming their second conference victory of the season.

Riley McGinn added 16 kills, while Ebarb tallied five. Freshman setter Haley Slade led the team with 27 set assists.

The Panthers (10-5 overall and 2-2 in the KJCCC) will travel to Iola for the Allen County Community College Invitational Friday and Saturday.

Neosho County will open the tournament with Dodge City Community College at 1 pm Friday and will have a quick turn around with Ottawa University at 3 pm. Saturday's contests features battles with KJCCC foes Allen County at 9 am and Fort Scott at 3 pm.