The Central Community College volleyball team closed out the regular season with a 3-1 loss to Northeast Community College in Norfolk on Thursday night. The loss gives the Raiders a mark of 28-9.

The Hawks took the opening sets 25-23, 25-14. CCC got on the board with a 27-25 victory in set 3, but Northeast won the match with a 29-27 final in set 4.

"Tonight was a tough loss for us as we wrap up our regular season and head into the post season," said CCC head coach Mary Young. "We struggled with passing and our defense, which made it hard to get into a rhythm offensively. Northeast played with a lot of confidence on offense and played tremendous defense."

Amber Anderson led the Raiders in kills with 18. Paxton Throne recorded a season-high 54 assists, while Jacie Laetsch logged a team-high 23 digs.

Up next, CCC will host the Region IX Tournament at Raider Fieldhouse next weekend. The tournament gets underway at 5 p.m. on Friday night as Southeast CC and North Platte CC meet in the opening match. The winner will move on to meet CCC in match 2 at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, the losing teams from match 1 and 2 will meet in match 3 at 11 a.m. The winner of match 3 will then meet the winner of match 2 in match 4 at 1:30 p.m. If necessary, a fifth match will be played at 1 p.m. on Sunday to determine the Region IX champion.

"We will need to regroup and practice hard in coming days if we want to make a run in the post season," said Young. "We definitely have the players to make that happen. We just need to trust, believe and execute."