No. 6 Navarro powers past Garden City

Garden City, KS-Immediately following Thursday night's loss, first-year Garden City coach, Jacob Sander acknowledged that while Eastern Wyoming was a good test to start the season, the next night would be even more daunting. 

Five minutes into Friday's match proved that and then some.  

Khaya Gordon had 19 kills, Selen Ozgur produced 36 assists, and No. 6 Navarro cruised to a 13-25, 22-25, 12-25 three-set victory on day two of the Scooter's Invitational at Conestoga Arena.  

The Broncbusters, which dropped to 0-2 for the first time since 2021, were without arguably their best player Julia Brazil, who was sidelined with a foot injury.  

And they missed her dearly.  

The Bulldogs, who produced the second most wins in school history (34) and finished third at the national tournament last season, came out with their hair on fire. They used a 9-0 run to build an 11-2 advantage; were up 10 after Gabriela Smolenska's powerful kill; then scored five straight points capped by Eriza Tamez's ace that put Navarro up, 19-5 and forced Sander to call timeout.  

"I was actually pretty proud of the way we hung in there tonight," Sander said. "Especially if you consider on who we didn't have out there." 

The Bulldogs strolled to a 12-point opening-set victory. But the Broncbusters had their chances in the second behind a frenzied crowd, one that helped push the heavy underdogs into an 18-18 deadlock after Katarina Miscevic rose for a right-handed spike. Moments later, sophomore, Carly Lang appeared to put away a kill inbounds. But replay upheld an attack error.  

After Navarro went back up by two, a pair of kills by Miscevic and Duru Karagoz gave Garden City a 22-21 lead. But the Bulldogs responded with four straight points, all of which came off Ozgur assists that gave the visitors a 2-0 edge.  

"That second set really showed me something," Sander explained. "The girls should feel good about that." 

The third set however was a totally different story. 

Navarro sprinted out to a 6-1 lead and was never challenged. The Broncbusters, which committed 27 attack errors on Thursday, were haunted by the same mistakes 24 hours later. A passing error followed by a Gabby Santos' attack that sailed long gave the Bulldogs a 19-9 lead. It epitomized the night in a nutshell. 

Miscevic and Lang each had five kills for Garden City.