Broncbusters lose at home to Colby; fall to fifth

Garden City, KS-This was definitely a missed opportunity for Garden City.  

Celia Mbaya had 24 kills, Alexandra Workman added 10, and Colby downed the Broncbusters in five sets 25-18, 21-25, 26-24, 23-25, 15-17 Saturday afternoon at Conestoga Arena. The loss was costly for Patrick Hiltz's squad, dropping them into fifth place in the conference standings and likely costing them a home first-round playoff game. 

Pinar Dugeroglu and Julia Brazil each had nine kills for Garden City, and Tola Maczka broke the single season assist mark with 45 in the game, bringing her year-to-date total to 1,065. 

"This one hurts, not going to lie," Hiltz said. "It's a tough pill to swallow when you play as well as we did and come up short. We can point to several different spots that may or may not have cost us, but in the end, we simply lost focus at the wrong time and on crucial points in the match." 

Garden City trailed briefly in the first set before four straight Maczka assists led directly to a pair of Jelena Milovanovich kills and another by Brazil and Dugeroglu that put the Broncbusters up by three. Apolline Lepuissant added a spike, Brazil and Milovanovich combined for back-to-back kills, and Garden City built their lead to as many as eight.  

"This was a good warm up for what the playoffs will be like for us," Hiltz said. 

After Colby closed the second set by scoring five out of the final eight points to even the match, Garden City rallied in the third. They overcame an early 3-0 deficit and were down by as many as six before Hiltz was forced to call a timeout. But trailing 16-10, the Broncbusters stormed back on the heels of a 9-1 surge that had the home team up by two. Colby managed to answer after a timeout to take a 22-21 advantage following an ace by Iiaria Chiericati. But Carly Lang came back with a kill, and the Trojans committed three crucial errors to give the Broncbusters the set. 

 "We had no business winning the third set but found a way, and then in the same fashion, should have been able to put away the match in set four and couldn't get there," Hiltz explained. 

In that critical fourth frame, Garden City held an 18-15 advantage after Lepuissant's kill. However, the Trojans responded and took the lead for good after Lang's swing landed a foot out of bounds. Chiericati came back with a kill, Vivien Fehervari pounded one down the middle, and Mbaya closed it out with a crosscourt spike to force a fifth and final set.  

"Our tough rotations caught up with us again to an extent," Hiltz admitted. "Ultimately though, today was a lesson in mental and emotional control."

The fifth set was an emotional rollercoaster with Garden City building an 8-4 lead. But Colby came back with six straight points to take a 10-8 edge. In fact, the Broncbusters trailed by as many as three before rallying back to tie it at 14 on the heels of Dugeroglu's block. Then, after Garden City fought off one match point, Mbaya hammered home a kill and Dugeroglu committed an attack error ending the game.