Neosho County Volleyball came out swinging early in Monday night's match against nationally ranked Fort Scott. That was the game plan all along. "Our gameplay was to come out, serve receive well, run a three-hitter offense and get them on the heels early," Coach Asya Herron said. "We wanted to keep being aggressive." As a result, the visiting Greyhounds were put on their heels early and led to a 3-0 (25-18, 25-23, 25-22)  Panther victory. "Coach (Lindsay) Hill and I have coached against each other and with each other for a long time," Herron explained. "We knew what we were looking at as far as offense and defense from their side."

Neosho County raced out to a 9-3 advantage, forcing Fort Scott into a number of early errors, as the Panthers never trailed in the opening set. "We did a great job of taking control of our side and limiting our unforced errors," Herron said. "We really did a good job of running our game plan and letting them make mistakes."

In the second set, Fort Scott looked to shift the momentum in its favor, grabbing a 17-9 lead, forcing Asya Herron to use a timeout. Coming out of the break, the Panthers went on a 6-2 run, and Neosho County continued to chip away at the deficit until a freshman Chandler Karr block landed in and gave her team a 22-21 lead. "We've been working on battling every single point whether we are up 10 or down 10," Herron said. "Today was the first day we've played every single point like it was set-point." The Panthers scored three of the next five points to secure the set win.

In the third set, Neosho County and Fort Scott swapped the lead in the early going, but sophomore Maryssa Recio tallied one of her team-high 13 kills put the Panthers in front 7-5. It was a lead which Neosho County never gave up the remainder of the evening. With a 21-15 lead, Fort Scott made a late push in hopes of extending the match to a fourth set. The Greyhounds closed the gap to 23-21, but like in the previous set, the Panthers closed out the sweep, scoring two of the final three points.

Sophomores Joanna Riggs and Breann Becker also added eight kills, while Becker dished out 29 assists. Defensively, Karr and freshman Imani Jones had two blocks each. "We worked really hard in practice making sure we matched up well with their middles and staying loaded so we could get up quick," Herron said. "The middles did a great job of staying with their hitters, blocking and closing out on the outside."

Neosho County (14-6 overall and 3-1 in the KJCCC) will host the Panther Invitational on Friday and Saturday. Action gets underway at 11 am against conference rival Allen County.

"I'm very impressed with what we did tonight against a very good ball team," Herron concluded. "We came out from point one and were the most aggressive team, and that's what ultimately got us the win."