CHANUTE-- Coming into Friday and Saturday's Neosho County Community College Invitational, Coach Asya Herron hoped back-to-back wins over ranked opponents would propel the Panthers to a 4-0 weekend at their annual home tournament.
The Panthers did just that.
"It was a good weekend for us," Herron said. "We had some really great moments and some not so great moments, but it allowed us to see that we can win even if we don't play great."
The Panthers opened the two-day event with a 3-2 (25-10, 23-25, 25-19, 23-25, 15-8) win over Ottawa University.
"Ottawa is scrappy," Herron said. "They pick up a lot of balls. For some reason, they are our kryptonite."
Mandi Taylor led a trio of Panthers who tallied double digits in kills with 11. Maryssa Recio and Jessie Roukema had 10 apiece. Rianne Richard recorded four of the team's five serving aces.
Defensively, Recio and Riley McGinn had seven blocks apiece, and Taryn Stobel had a team-high 25 digs.
After that match, Neosho County didn't lose a set for the remainder of the tournament.
They defeated Southeast (Neb.) Community College, 3-0 (25-22, 25-22, 25-11), Allen County Community College, 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-23) and McCook (Neb.) Community College, 3-0 (28-26, 25-17, 25-20).
"As far as the rest of the games, we took care of business," Herron explained. "We did a really good job of making the other team make the errors. When we had the opportunities to swing away, we put the ball away. Some of those things are what we were lacking early in the season."
Against Southeast, Jessie Roukema paced the Panthers with seven kills, while Taylor and McGinn had three blocks each.
The next day, it was Kylie Foster (eight against Allen County) and Roukema (nine against McCook) leading the team in kills.
"We had a lot of people do a lot of good things this weekend," Herron said. "Every game was a really a team win. One game it would be Riley, the next it would be Rowdy or Kylie. One game Mandi was the go-to."
She added, the undefeated weekend builds confidence as the team heads towards the home stretch in the conference schedule as Neosho County only has five conference games remaining before the conclusion of the regulars season.
The Panthers (15-8 overall and 4-1 in the KJCCC) will make the long drive to Highland (17-5 and 4-2) to face the Scotties on Wednesday.
First serve is set for 5:30 pm.