Cowley volleyball beats Butler

Lately, the Cowley College volleyball team has got off to slow starts before cruising.

During Friday's night's regular season road finale, the fourth-ranked Lady Tigers  jumped out to an early lead, only to see Butler rally. That was the story throughout their match.

But when Cowley needed to make a play, it did, especially late in each game. The Lady Tigers used runs to close out each game on their way to earning a 30-23, 30-23, 30-22 over the Grizzlies.

Cowley stormed out of the gates to take an early 8-2 lead on one of Crystal Garman's team-high 14 kills on the night, forcing Butler into calling a timeout.

The Grizzlies gradually chipped away at the lead, eventually tying the first game at 12-12 on a Kristi Parker block. The six-foot-2 sophomore was a force at the net, turning back potential kills and swatting kills in the middle of Cowley's defense. She finished with six kills and three blocks.

Butler then came to within 26-22 on a Kiersten Karlix kill.

"We got really lazy," Lady Tigers coach Joanna Pryor said. "We knew we had that six-point cushion. We just didn't move their feet. When we play tough teams, it's not going to be okay. We've got to work on that because we haven't played a lot of tough competition."

But Cowley proceeded to go to work and put the game away, as it scored four of the game's final five points.

"We closed it nicely," Lady Tigers coach Joanna Pryor said. "We can play much better than that. We played to the level of competition. We didn't played as well as we should have. They weren't probably expecting Butler to be as good as they are."

Cowley and Butler see-sawed leads early in the third game. Butler County took a 4-3 lead on a Alex Szalawiga kill. The Lady Tigers finally took the lead for good when six-foot-four freshman Lucia Cizmarova swatted one of her 10 kills for a 6-5 lead.

Cizmarova didn't see a tremendous amount of activity at the net, but took advantage of the opportunities given.

"She's always been on," Pryor said. "She rarely has a bad match. She did well with what she was given. She was hitting right over them."

But was even more impressive was Cizmarova's blocking. She only finished with five blocks, but made them count. Cizmarova made two of the most critical plays late in the third game.

After the Grizzlies rallied to within 24-20 on a Rachel Moore kill, Cizmarova eliminated the dramatics, recording back-to-back blocks to propel Cowley to the win.

Sophomore Andrea Mitchell had a rather error-free night setting up opportunities for her teammates. She finished with 28 assists, in addition to nine digs and one block.

"She had a great night of setting," Pryor said. "I was real proud of her because I don't think she had one two-hit call. Generally, she's got one or two each match. But she did a good job of getting to the ball and she was quick reacting."

Cowley improved to 24-4 overall and 6-0 in District M play with the win. Butler fell to 22-18 overall and 1-4 in District M.

The Lady Tigers come back to W.S. Scott Auditorium for their final two regular season games before the District M playoffs start Oct. 29. They host Hesston on Tuesday in a critical district match.

Hesston is 4-1 in District M and 24-11 overall. Cowley closes out the season Wednesday against Fort Scott. Both matches start at 6:30 p.m.

"They're going to be tough," Pryor said of Hesston. "They're always excited to play. They're always going to be up and never give up. We have to play the whole time. We can't take points off like we did tonight."

By DAVID WOLMAN
Traveler Sports Editor