CHANUTE, KS -- After a dominating sweep of Wentworth Military Academy in the afternoon session Tuesday's triangular, the Neosho County Community College Panther volleyball team were then swept by the Kansas City Kansas Community College Blue Devils, 25-22, 25-15 and 25-23 in the night cap.

Falling behind 4-0 early in the first set, Neosho County capitalized on multiple KCK errors to tie the game at seven.

"I think we did a lot of good things," Coach Asya Herron said. "We gave up to many points in a row, and that will come with more experience playing next to each other."

That proved to be as close to seeing the lead through much of the match.

The Panthers tied the game at two apiece in the second set by on a kill by sophomore outside hitter Jessie Roukema.

The Blue Devils responded with an 8-4 spurt to put them in control of the second set.

In the third, freshman Kalyn Bitner put Neosho County in front 1-0, and it was the start of a run which gave the Panthers an 8-3 advantage.

Herron attributed the surge due to a change in the offense.

"In the third set we ran a 6-2. We added some offense to the front row," she explained. "The first couple sets we ran a 5-1 with a shorter setter on the front row. We weren't producing offensively so they had more opportunities to score with our smaller block."

The set then became a back-and-forth affair with KCK scoring the next three points and eventually tied the game at 13.

The home team resounded with three straight points as they looked to take back control of the match, but the Blue Devils scored five of the next seven points to take an 18-17 lead.

KCK never surrendered the lead again, but Roukema brought the Panthers back within one with a late block point.

However, KCK scored the final two points to lock up the win.

Despite the loss, it proved to be a good eye-opener for the team moving forward.

"It was good, especially for the freshman who don't realize the strength of our conference," Herron said. (Tuesday) night was definitely a good interpretation of what every Wednesday will be like for the remainder of the season."

The Panthers (1-1) will travel to the Greyhound Invitational Friday and Saturday. Neosho County will open the two-day event against Independence Community College at 3 pm.

"It will be nice to see a couple teams, even though they are in the conference, it won't necessarily be a conference game," Herron concluded.