The last two weeks have been a rough road for the Cougar Volleyball team having lost six consecutive matches heading to huge conference showdown with Wharton County Junior College on Wednesday night. CBC took the Pioneers in four-sets here in Beeville back on October 3rd, but Wednesday night's winner would most likely be the South's #4 seed in the Region XIV Championship tournament, while the loser would be relegated to a play-in game.
It was barn-burner of match through the first two sets as WCJC one set one 29-27; while CBC took set two 25-23. Set four saw the Cougars start to loose their momentum late and drop the set 25-20. The Pioneers looked unstoppable in the fourth stanza and jumped out to a huge 10-1 lead. Slowly, CBC chipped away at the lead, before an injury to freshman middle-hitter Emma Batte proved to be too much from the Cougars could recover - losing 25-14.
Freshman outside-hitter Sydney Whitaker came through big on the offensive end pounding down a match high 14 kills and registering a .303 hitting percentage. Lyndsay Garibay and Karizma Matelski also chipped in eight kills a piece. Alyssa Hutcheson led the defensive efforts picking up 33 pioneer shots, with Cierra Hernandez, Garibay, and Samantha Santos gathering 17, 15, and 13 respectively. Batte and Precious Lopez were a force at the net blocking six and four blocks each, as the Cougars rejected a total of 15 Pioneer attempts.
Because the Cougars lost in four-sets, their post-season hopes still had a chance. Wharton County had one more conference match to play versus Laredo College. Wharton and CBC were tied head to head, and head to head in sets won/lost. Wharton was swept by Laredo on Friday, which again tied CBC and WCJC in their overall Region XIV South record and sets won/lost. The fifth tie breaker was to compare the points scored between Wharton and CBC. That number ended up being 183 for CBC and 178 for Wharton - and with that, the Coastal Bend Cougar Volleyball program had earned its first ever post-season berth as the south's zone #4 seed in the Region XIV Championships set for November 1st - 3rd in Baytown, Texas.
CBC will play the East Zone's #1 seed, Navarro College who is currently ranked #3 in the nation on Friday at 1:00 pm. A loss will move them into the contender's bracket and a game at 5:00 pm Friday, while a win will send the Columbia and Navy to the Region XIV Semi-Finals on Saturday at 9:00 am.