News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 9, 2008

COMETS FALL TO NATIONALLY RANKED LONGVIEW

Facing a nationally ranked team is never easy, and the Cottey College Comets knew they would have the toughest match of the season last night when Longview Community College, the nation's seventh ranked team in volleyball came calling. The Comets, however, playing in front of the home crowd, acquitted themselves well, even though they lost in three games 16-25, 22-25, and 14-25.

"I believe that we played the best match of our season last night against a nationally ranked team," said head coach Marla Kannady Foreman. "They [Longview] were going in as fourth ranked, until yesterday, when they had had a bad week and dropped to seventh. Either way, we showed them a good match and never let them take anything for free."

The Comets were right up there with Longview in game one. At 11-16, Foreman took a timeout. For whatever reason, after the short break, the Comets made a few more unforced errors, and the Lakers took full advantage of them making the score look more lopsided than the game actually was.

The second game was nip-and-tuck all the way to the finish. In fact. the Comets were tied with the Lakers at 21-all, which had the home crowd hoping for a win in that game.

"Set two was by far the best, as you can tell by the score," said Foreman. "At one point, we were tied 21-21, and it was anybody's set. I couldn't have asked my players to have done any more than they had in that second game, and I am even more proud of the fact that we didn't play in our usual set two mode. There was definitely no relaxed play last night, and that is why I feel that we were successful in our performance last night."

In the third and final game, the Comets played well, but Longview showed why they are a national powerhouse, making few errors and taking advantage of everything. Even though the home team lost, the fans still saw an outstanding performance by the Comets.

Team leaders for the Comets were Lindsey Webb with two aces, Ashleigh Bryson with 14 assists, Lauren Jenkins with eight kills, Anna Cruse with seven blocks and Jesse Jargowsky with 20 digs.

The Comets' record fell to 14-5 on the season. Cottey will travel to Kansas City, Kansas, on Friday to face Kansas City Kansas Community College. The final home match of the season will be on Monday, October 27, when the Comets face Northeast Oklahoma A&M Community College. That game will begin at 7 p.m. inside the friendly confines of Hinkhouse Gymnasium.