CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — After earning the last at-large bid to the NJCAA Division II Volleyball National Championships, the Neosho County Panthers went two-and-out in Iowa last week with losses to St. Clair County and Grand Rapids.
“We probably could have had a better performance. But the girls fought,” Neosho County head coach Lisiane Matsdorff said. “It was our first time as a group at nationals, so we all had some growing to do. We needed some better individual performances. It just didn’t happen. We lost as a team and it happened. But going to nationals was amazing. We loved to go. Now we need to keep recruiting, because we want to come back here next year.”
In the first round, the Panthers fell to St. Clair County in five sets, 3-2 (17-25, 25-17, 25-23, 21-25, 15-13).
Neosho County struggled to put the ball down, committing 36 errors with 48 kills on 177 swings.
“Our girls couldn’t put the ball on the floor,” Matsdorff said. “We had too many mistakes. That match was more about our mistakes than about St. Clair. Our defense worked as best as possible. The setting was there. But our hitters didn’t kill the ball.”
Brooke Galey led the Panthers with 14 kills while adding four aces and 11 digs.
“She did great and it was the best situation for her to recover from a bad game against Highland,” Matsdorff said. “I was really happy for her.”
Ella Bryan added 11 kills while Bailey Owens chipped in 10.
Trinity Collette led Neosho County with 23 digs while Bryan added 22. Sarah Wehrli amassed 41 assists.
Relegated to the consolation bracket, Neosho County was swept by Grand Rapids, 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 25-22) in their final match.
Grand Rapids maintained a .302 kill percentage in the match, committing just 14 errors on 106 swings.
“They were extremely aggressive and they’re a team I consider more aggressive than us,” Matsdorff said. “And they have more experience at nationals than us. That experience and the way they played aggressively made a difference.”
Owens led the Panthers with 12 kills while Bryan had 10.
Wehrli had 35 assists while Collette had 11 digs.
Heartland, a team Neosho County swept earlier in the regular season, won the national title.
“When you see that Heartland won the tournament and we were the only team that beat them, 3-0, this year, it left a bad taste,” Matsdorff said. “We know what we’re capable of. But we had to switch systems and it didn’t work the same way.”
Looking ahead
The two losses left the Panthers with a 22-13 overall record for the 2025 season, which included a fourthplace finish in the KJCCC and the school’s first berth to the national tournament since the spring of 2021 (the 2020 fall season was postponed to the spring of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
“We had a lot of freshmen and they have a lot of reasons to feel good about going to nationals,” Matsdorff said. “I’m really proud of everybody. They had great sportsmanship. They loved going and each moment was great. We loved our experience there. It makes us want to come back every single year. We want to represent our college in the best way possible.”
