MCC made nationals in Miami to cap amazing '80

Editor’s note: McCook Community College has been displaying day-by-day memories of the terrific 1980 Indians volleyball team while preparing for its 2020-21 athletic season to begin.

An amazing achievement was reported 40 years ago today...

TRUE HALL – On a night when fans crammed the stands, filled the stage, crowded the balcony, and blocked the aisles, the 13th ranked McCook Community College volleyball team delivered the biggest win in the six-year history of the sport, with a 3-1 win over 16th ranked Cloud County Community College (Kansas).

With the win, the Indians qualify for the 16-team National Junior College Athletic Association Tournament in Miami Dec. 3-5.

The win was so big, it was front page news in the Nov. 19, 1980 McCook Daily Gazette where an action shot of spiker Deb Jones (Oxford) appeared along with the caption “Heading Down South.”

After dropping the first set of the match 15-7, MCC unleashed what McCook Gazette’s sports editor called “an artillery barrage,” leading to three straight set wins, 15-7, 15-4, 15-11.

“Cloud County had no place to run,” Paul Mowry wrote of the dominating MCC hitting attack.

“This is undoubtedly one of the best teams ever to come out of the Midwest,” MCC coach Stan Garretson said, after the match. “We have a super bunch,”

But it took the “Super Bunch” one set to warm up to the task.

Cloud County raced out to a 6-1 lead in the first set before MCC responded to close the gap to 7-5.

Then the Thunderbirds were able to win an “unusually long point” to lead 8-5.

That’s when Garretson yanked a couple starters in favor of freshmen Jeanne Porter (Crawford) and Denise Garey (McCook) but the Kansans went on to a 7-2 run to claim the first set, 15-7.

The visitors used low, quick sets to nullify MCC at the net in the first match.

Despite the first-set loss, Garretson cited the work of Porter who set the ball well and served as the team’s sparkplug early on.

“I thought she carried us through a couple rough spots,” Garretson said.

MCC’s pair of sophomore all-American candidates – Tammy Middaugh (Bertrand) and Marian Kotschwar (McCook) – took control of the net in the second set with blocks and spikes that Mowry said “came with such velocity they threatened to scatter the visitors all over the playing surface.”

“Kotschwar spiked the ball repeatedly off the arms and bodies of defenders. As she has done several times this season, she managed to knock one foe to the floor,” he wrote.

Of Middaugh, Mowry wrote: “She was intimidating at the net, blocking spike after spike. She spiked the ball well too, in addition to making several saves and several ace sets right on the net.”

MCC jumped out to a 10-3 lead in the second set and closed out the set 15-7 to tie the match at 1-1.

The Indians rolled to a 15-4 third-set win.

Cannon fire, it seems, was accentuated by the booming brass of the MCC Pep Band and the concussive drum beats of several renditions of “The Wabash Cannonball” throughout the night.

In addition to MCC’s two all-American candidates, Mowry said the Indians’ entire frontline got in on the cannon fire as well, in addition to solid setting and defense.

“Lynn Krolikowski (Wood River) contributed a number of spikes along with some good all-around floor play. Deb Jones (Oxford) and Shelly Hurt (Loup City) saved one incoming spike after another from the back line and setters Barb McBee (Culbertson) and Julie Wetherington (Wray, Colo.) were on top of the net with their offerings.”

The Indians took a 6-1 lead in the fourth set, but the Thunderbirds rallied to make it a 7-6 game and took the lead at 9-8 before a Middaugh kill tied the game and the Indians scored the game’s next three points to lead 12-9.

Garretson said he believed the match went according to the plan MCC has used all year long: beat the other team upfront.

“It’s partly psychological,” he said. “If you block a few, they start looking for a place to dink it.”some very hard spikes and kept them in play.

MCC improved to 39-9-4 on the year and is one of 12 teams winning regional playoff matches. Those 12 teams will be joined by four wildcard teams that will play in four pools of four teams Dec. 3. The top two teams in each pool will emerge in a single-elimination tournament.