The Neosho County Community College volleyball team did something that had not been done since 2006 – beat Johnson County Community College.
That year, it took the Panthers five sets to get the win, but 10 years later, it took the home team only four sets (25-19, 25-22, 12-25, 25-19) to get it done.
"Anytime you beat Johnson County, ranked or unranked, is a huge for us,"
Coach Asya Herron. "They are always a national caliber team, and it was the push we needed."
In the early going, Neosho County looked like a team on a mission, grabbing control of the opening set 7-1, but Johnson County, the No.
19-ranked team in the country, scored the next eight straight points.
Kills by sophomores Rianne Richard and Riley McGinn slowed the Cavaliers momentum, and the Panthers tied the game at 15 apiece before sophomore Mandi Taylor put NCCC back in front 16-15.
Richard added the exclamation point kill to give the Panthers a 1-0 set lead.
Early in the second, it was a back-and-forth affair. Neither team could get an advantage larger than four as Neosho County took a two set lead.
"Each game, we did something a little better," Herron said. "The first game, we struck the ball well, and they struggled defensively against it. The second game, we blocked well."
The tide turned for the visitors in the third, as the Panthers stumbled out of the gates.
Johnson County scored the first five points before a McGinn block put the Panthers on the scoreboard.
Neosho County never got within three in the set, but the Cavaliers scored nine of the final 11 points of the set to force another set.
"We didn't do much of anything in the set," Herron said.
The start of the fourth set appeared to be a near carbon copy, as the Panthers found themselves trailing 5-1.
A serving error by Johnson County, a kill by Taylor and a pair of points from sophomore Kylie Foster tied the match.
A pair of offensive errors by the Cavaliers put the Panthers in front.
However, Johnson County had one more run in them, retaking the lead by as many as three, but two kills by Richard and sophomore Jessie Roukema tied the match at 14.
"We've been working a lot in practice on earning our points while being down," Herron said of playing from behind. "That's starting to pay off for us. We stayed aggressive and forced them to make errors."
Neosho County then took advantage of a pair of errors by the visitors to go in front for good at 16-14.
"The fourth game, we really picked up the defense," Herron explained.
"They started attacking, and we made some great plays. We were lucky enough to stay on the winning side."
The win was also the second straight victory against a top-20 opponent, which the Panthers haven't done since 2013.
"It's exciting for our team. I feel like even when we aren't playing our best games, we are still winning," Herron said. "The conference is tough as always, but we are all beating up on each other."
The Panthers provided Johnson County with the tall task of defending a balanced attack as Richard tallied a team-high eight kills, while Taylor added seven. Freshman Kalyn Bitner had six and Foster five.
Defensively, Richard led the team with 23 digs, while McGinn tallied seven of the 14 blocks for the Panthers.
Neosho County will host the Panther Invitational today and Saturday.
"It's always exciting to have good teams in your gym," Herron said.
"It'll be a tough tournament. We hope we can use the momentum of the last couple weeks to go 4-0."
The Panthers open play this afternoon at 3 pm against Ottawa University and at 7 pm against Southeast (Neb.) Community College. The next day they will face rival Allen County at 11 am and McCook (Neb.) Community College at 3