NORTHEAST FALLS TO THREE NATIONALLY-RANKED TEAMS OVER THE WEEKEND IN OVERLAND PARK

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – The Northeast Community College volleyball team competed with four different squads Friday and Saturday in Overland Park, Kansas as they took on No. 1 Cowley County Community, No. 2 Johnson County Community College, Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College and No. 18 Kansas City Kansas Community College. The Hawks fell in all four matchups.

Northeast (12-9, 1-2 ICCAC) battled the two top teams in the nation on Friday as No. 1 Cowley and No. 2 Johnson County took their duels with the Hawks by final scores of 3-0. Northeast took the third set on Saturday against NEO before falling by a final score of 3-1. In the last showdown of weekend, the Hawks took the nationally ranked KCK squad to the wire as they took the first set 25-17, dropped set two 25-27, rallied to take set three 25-23 before dropping set four and set five. Mya Hedstrom (O'Neill, Neb.) led Northeast with 22 kills in the two Saturday contests combined.

STAT SHEET:

GAME 1 AGAINST COWLEY COUNTY:

Set Scores: 13-25, 25-27, 17-25

Kills: Alex Arenas (Wakefield, Neb.) 7

Blocks: Teya Boyer (Plainview, Neb.) 4

Ace Serves: Kaidence Wilson (North Loup, Neb.) 3

Digs: Jayden Bestenlehner (Omaha, Neb.) 13

Assists: Teya Boyer 15

GAME 2 AGAINST JOHNSON COUNTY:

Set Scores: 12-25, 8-25, 20-25

Kills: Teya Boyer 5

Digs: Jayden Bestenlehner 15

Assists: Teya Boyer 17

GAME 3 AGAINST NEO:

Set Scores: 19-25, 16-25, 25-15, 20-25

Kills: Mya Hedstrom (O'Neill, Meb.) 9

Blocks: Kaidence Wilson 3, Shaylyn Safranek (Merna, Neb.) 3

Ace Serves: Alex Arenas 3

Digs: Alex Arenas 20

Assists: Shaylyn Safranek 20

GAME 4 AGAINST KCK:

Set Scores: 25-17, 25-27, 25-23, 23-25, 9-15

Kills: Mya Hedstrom 13

Blocks: Avery Couch (David City, Neb.) 8, Mya Hedstrom 5

Digs: Alex Arenas 26, Jayden Bestenlehner 23

Assists: Shaylyn Safranek 21, Teya Boyer 14

HEAR FROM THE HAWKS COACH:

Head Volleyball Coach Amanda Schultze on takeaways from the weekend and turning the page:

"We played some great teams and finally started to play like ourselves against KCK," Schultze said. "I hope they learned that we need to be mentally focused every time we step foot on the court and also in practice so we can get better at the little things we struggled at in games. We are looking forward to getting back to some conference play next week."

UP NEXT:

The Hawks will travel for a conference battle next as they will take on Iowa Lakes Community College at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Estherville, Iowa.

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