The Dodge City Community College Conquistador volleyball team faced some of the toughest competition it will see all season Friday and Saturday at the Colby Classic hosted by Colby CC.
The Conqs went 2-3 in five matches at the event, giving the team a 10-8 overall record. But the must-win of the tournament, said head coach Shaun Pohlman, was the conference match the Conqs played against Garden City CC Saturday.
Dodge was able to get that win in a hotly contested five-set match to open up Saturday's play for the Conqs. The rest of the tournament matches were played best-two-of-three.
"It was pretty intense," Pohlman said. "We played really well the first two sets." The scores were 25-19, 25-18, 24-26, 17-25 and 17-15.
The Conqs played Northwest (Wyo.) College in their first match of the event, dropping it in two sets, 19-25, 21-25. Pohlman said that Northwest had two Brazilian hitters that dominated the match.
Up next was North Platte (Neb.) CC, who came into their match with Dodge city 9-0 and was ranked 20th in the NJCAA Division 2 preseason poll. The Conqs lost their second match in a row, 22-25, 20-25.
"That was a match we needed to bring our A-plus game to be able to win," Pohlman said. "We brought our B game to the match."
Friday's final match for Dodge was against a familiar foe, Lamar (Colo.) CC, whom the Conqs have beaten twice already this season. Dodge took care of business against Lamar again and beat them 25-16, 25-21.
After the team's win against Garden City CC, the Conqs played Eastern Wyoming College and lost in three sets. The scores were 20-25, 25-20, 11-15.
“After getting out of the habit of starting matches slowly, we need to pick it up to finish matches out better,” Pohlman said. “Once we hit about 19 points we need to focus in and close things out."
Even though his team lost three matches, Pohlman said that the team can still take something away from the competition in Colby. After all, the Conqs left the tournament with a 2-0 conference record.
"This tournament was a pretty strong test for this point in our season," Pohlman said. "The main thing was to come in here and beat Garden, and we'll take any extra wins we can get."
The Conqs play Hutchinson CC in Hutchinson Wednesday. Hutch beat Seward County CC, a team that beat Dodge three times in the Lamar CC Running Lopes Kick-Off Tournament, in four sets over the weekend.
DODGE CITY —
