From RAMA PEROO/Cowley College
Getting solid play throughout its roster, the No. 4-ranked Cowley College volleyball team improved its record to 12-0 with a couple of wins at the Ranger Tri-Match played Saturday in Ranger, TX.
The Lady Tigers opened with a 25-16, 25-17, 25-5 win over Cisco College (TX) before defeating host Ranger College 25-19, 25-16, 25-11.
“We played two quality teams that will help prepare us for the remainder of our conference season,” Cowley head coach Steven Gream said.
Against Cisco, Cowley was led by freshman Laura Bonomi’s 15 kills and 10 digs. Anna Kiss added 12 kills, and Rossana Papa finished with 33 assists.
The Lady Tigers would then face a Ranger squad that had played several teams in the conference tough already this season. However, Cowley got double-doubles from Papa (39 assists, 10 digs) and Bonomi (14 kills, 10 digs) as they have yet to drop a set this season.
Kiss added 13 kills, and freshman Sara Puskas contributed 13 kills and a .500 hitting percentage.
Sadie Kabisch, who had 20 digs in the win over Cisco, added 19 more digs in the win over Ranger.
“Sadie was outstanding on the weekend and has really taken charge of leading our defense in the back row,” Gream said.
Cowley will return home to face Seminole State College Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. The Trojans are 10-10 on the season and have gone 4-1 against Jayhawk Conference competition.
“Seminole is much improved, so we will need to balance our attack, serve well, and play defense on Wednesday,” Gream said.
Barton hands Tiger men’s soccer team their first defeat
After allowing only two goals in its first seven games, the No. 3-ranked Cowley College men’s soccer team allowed two goals in the first 18 minutes of its game at No. 11-ranked Barton Community College on Saturday and could not recover in the 3-1 defeat.
The loss was the first of the season for the Tigers, who are now 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the Jayhawk Conference.
“Saturday’s game was determined in the first 18 minutes,” Cowley head coach Ruy Vaz said. “After that, we were dominant but never dangerous.”
Barton (6-0-2) improves its record to 3-0-1 in conference play as they opened the scoring on Saturday with a goal by Maxence Voinier only 1:20 into the contest. Voinier would add a second goal with 26:29 left in the first half.
Cowley became the aggressor in the second half, outshooting the Cougars 12-4. The Tigers would pull within 2-1 as Sora Funakoshi scored on a penalty kick with 24:48 left to play. The goal by Funakoshi was his team-leading fifth of the season.
A mistake in Cowley’s back half of the field resulted in Barton’s Lucas Constante scoring an insurance goal for the Cougars with just over three minutes remaining.
Cowley out-shot Barton 16-12 and produced more corner kicks than the Cougars (4-3) but came up short on the scoreboard. Cowley goalkeeper Jona Hellingrath allowed his first three goals of the season after recording shutouts in his previous three appearances.
The Tigers will attempt to start a new win streak when they host Kansas City Kansas Community College on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The Blue Devils are 2-2-1 overall and 1-2-1 in the conference.
“Kansas City is always a tough opponent,” Vaz said. “We need to see a positive response from our guys.”
Tigers women’s soccer battle to 1-1 tie at No. 8-ranked Barton
The No. 14-ranked Cowley College women’s soccer team got a second-half goal from sophomore Nella Nevalainen to pull out a 1-1 tie at eighth-ranked Barton Community College Saturday in Great Bend, KS.
Cowley remains unbeaten on the season with a record of 4-0-2 in the Jayhawk Conference, while Barton is now 3-1-2.
The Cougars needed just over three minutes into Saturday’s contest to grab the lead as Beatriz Baldi scored her first collegiate goal to put Barton in front 1-0.
“The first half, we were flat and inconsistent,” Cowley head coach Roberto dos Santos said.
Barton would maintain the 1-0 lead into the second half before Cowley’s Laura Pouedras found Nevalainen for what was also her first collegiate goal with 27:27 left to play.
“Our girls had a much better second half and were able to impose our game and find the back of the net,” dos Santos said.
The Cougars out-shot Cowley 15-5, but Lady Tiger goalkeeper Kanon Dehama stopped four of Barton’s five shots on goal.
“It’s always tough to play on the road, especially at Barton,” dos Santos said. “Coming out with a tie was a good result considering the level of opponent we were competing against. I am proud of how the girls kept focused on getting better.”
Cowley will return home to take on No. 18-ranked Kansas City Kansas Community College on Wednesday at 5 p.m. The Lady Blue Devils are 5-1-2 overall and 3-1-2 in the Jayhawk Conference.
“KCK will be another tough opponent that wants to prove themselves against us,” dos Santos said.
Tiger cross country teams take part in large meet at University of Nebraska
The Cowley College men’s and women’s cross country team’s second test of the season took place Saturday at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. This was the first time the teams had competed at Mahoney Park Golf Course, with over 300 runners in each race.
The University of Kansas, Nebraska, Wichita State, Creighton, Omaha, Drake, and several other NCAA, NAIA, and other JUCO schools were present.
“This was good to see how we navigated our way through massive crowds and run our race against varyingly different levels of competition,” Cowley head coach Cameron Rieth said.
Lady Tiger sophomore Dheniffer Vaz (19:26.9) and freshman Kayli Myers (19:33.7) led the team after the team’s top runner, Leticia Belo, was held out due to a back injury.
“Our ladies crushed it; most ran around a minute faster than we did our first meet and looked more confident handling the distance on a much hillier/ harder course as well,” Rieth said.”Dheniffer and Kayli are just fantastic to work with; they are gaining more and more confidence with each week.”
Lakota Schultz also had a personal best time of 20:50.0, while Britt Hunter (21:12.0) and Lili-Rose Breheret (22:04.0) also had solid days and rounded out the scoring for the Lady Tigers. “Our pack time is much better than is shown in the results; we just need to focus on getting better, and our fourth and fifth runners need to make the gap closer to our third runner.”
On the men’s side, it was a different story.
“I am not sure if the big names across the fronts of the jerseys made us timid or if I just did a little bit too much overcoaching,” Rieth said. “We started out way too slow, which is very hard to make up because, in a race this size and massive gaps in talent level, it is hard to navigate your way through all of those runners to get up to where you should be. However, what a great learning experience. We have a bunch of runners in new leadership positions on this team, and they are figuring out pacing and efforts in real-time at new distances, which is not easy to do.”
Mason Bickle led the Cowley men by finishing with a time of 27:05.3 in the 8K race. Fellow Tigers Austin Schaeffer (27:10.9) and Mason Blochowiak (27:13.9) were just behind Bickle.
“These guys were a solid three-way punch again to lead our squad,” Rieth said.
Other Tiger runners were Kevin Rivas-Guillen (27:35.2), Deshawn Douglas (27:44.5), Elio Rivera (28:09.2), Manuel Leos (29:29.4), and Korbin Woods (30:34.5).
“Deshawn Douglas had an amazing first 8k of his running career,” Rieth said. “For being a mid-distance specialist, I am really proud of his effort and how hard he works to get better at something that does not come easy for him. He has been one of our team’s early season surprises for sure.”
The Tiger cross country teams will have some time off before competing at the Chile Pepper Invite on Friday, September 29, in Fayetteville, AR.
“We are excited to run down there and hope the conditions are in our favor, and if they are not, so what, we will run hard and compete well,” Rieth said. “We are excited to see other top-ranked national JUCO teams down there, as well as NCAA D-1 and D-2 teams, so we will get to see how we stack up.”
