WMCC men's basketball set to host Thanksgiving Classic Friday, Saturday; receive votes in latest NJCAA poll

The Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team will be looking to feast upon their opponents Friday and Saturday as the Cougars prepare to host the Thanksgiving Classic this weekend at Cougar Palace.

The Cougars, who are on a 6-game winning streak, open the Classic against Gillette College. The Pronghorns are 6-1 in their inaugural season in Region IX and bring a talented team to Cougar Palace, under the direction of former Miles Community College coach Shawn Neary. WNCC will also face Central Community College-Columbus on Saturday. Both WNCC contests tip off at 7 p.m.

The Eastern Wyoming College Lancers will also be taking part in the Thanksgiving Classic as they look for their second win of the season. The Lancers will open Friday against Central-Columbus, and then Gillette on Saturday. The Lancers’ contests tip off at 4:30 p.m.

WNCC coach Russ Beck said this will be a challenging tournament.

“Gillette is a very athletic team. They have a small point guard that drives to get into the paint,” he said. “They also have several guys about 6-3 and 6-5 that do a really good job of attacking the offensive glass. They prefer to play an up-tempo game. They are well coached and Shawn Neary had a lot of success at Miles, and he had a year to prepare this team for this inaugural season. In terms of Central-Columbus, we really haven’t had a chance to see them play. Both teams will present us with a good challenge and that is what you want, to play teams that will be able to test us.”

WNCC enters the home Classic with plenty of confidence. Since the Cougars suffered a season-opening loss to College of Eastern Utah, they have rebounded with six straight wins, while averaging over 85 points a contest. The Cougars have 97 points in wins against Colorado Northwestern and the Pac West All-stars.

Beck said that season-opening did wonders for the team.

“That loss showed that our emphasize has to be defense and to be able to hold teams down of what they like to score on average,” he said. “I think we have pulled together as a group. I was glad we played a good team right off the bat because it let us know where we were at. The kids responded well and worked hard in practice. With the adversity that we had when Scott [Bamforth] got injured, it allowed other guys to step up. I think the chemistry is starting to develop with this team.”

On top of the six-game winning streak, the Cougars are starting to make some noise on the national seen. The Cougars received votes in this week’s NJCAA national poll. The last time the Cougar men received national poll recognition was back in 2005 when the Cougars were No. 1 in the nation for three weeks, under the direction of former coach Ron Brillhart. WNCC finished the regular season ranked No. 14 with a 25-4 record.

Beck said this team is deserving of the national recognition and the program is headed in the right direction.

“The polls start to shake out as the time goes on and I thought we played three really challenging games, two games against Eastern Utah College and the Air Force Prep team,” he said. “We presented ourselves with early challenges, but it allows us to grow. This is where I thought we would be after seven games. It is nice to be receiving votes, but at the same time we can’t constantly be looking at the polls. Hopefully we can handle business this weekend and those polls take care of themselves.”

The team is excited to be playing in front of the Cougar fans and to show them how much they have improved from the season-opening 77-61 loss to Eastern Utah on Nov. 3.

“We are excited to back at home. We have six wins now and none of them have been at home,” Beck said. “We really didn’t play our best basketball in our season opener and that was the only opportunity for people to see us play. We would like to play well at home to show people what we are capable of and let the people know we are a team that people can get behind and be proud of. We are excited to be going after our first wins on our home floor.”

After this weekend, the Cougars will be at home for a single game on Tuesday when they host Lamar Community College, the defending Region IX champions. WNCC will then be on the road for a tournament in Sheridan, Wyo., before taking three weeks off before returning to action Dec. 29-31 at the Indian Hills New Year’s Eve Tournament in Ottumwa, Iowa.

Other Notes:

* There will also be Turkey Bowling during both night’s of the Thanksgiving Classic at halftime of the men’s game. Individuals can win Turkeys by knocking down pins in a bowling competition. Saturday’s promotion will be trading card night where the first 150 Cougar fans will receive one trading card of a Cougar men’s basketball player.

*WNCC men’s basketball players Francisco Cruz and Geddes Robinson are making some noise in the national statistics. Cruz, a sophomore, is 16^th in scoring, averaging 21 points a game. Robinson, a sophomore, is 33^rd in scoring (18.4 points), 33^rd in rebounding (9.2 rebounds), and 16^th in field goal percentage.

*The Cougar women will also be in action this weekend as they travel to Garden City, Kan., to face Garden City and Seward County. The No. 10 Cougars are also 6-1 on the season after dropping their first game of the season last weekend to Nov. 4 Midland College.

WNCC women top Air Force Prep

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Stormye Everett finished with a double-double and the Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team rebounded from its first loss of the season by getting past the Air Force Prep 74-63 in the final day of the Prep tournament.

The win pushed the eighth-ranked Cougars record to 6-1 on the season after No. 4 ranked Midland handed the Cougars their first loss of the season in Friday night.

The Cougars held a 40-29 halftime lead and was up by 20 points in the second half before the Cougars went on a 10-minute span without rebounding, which allowed the Huskies to slice the lead to four points.

Assistant coach Jennifer Pedersen said they played well tonight, except for their rebounding woes.

“Air Force Prep is a lot better than in years past. They have a big girl that is not bad,” she said. “Defensively we did a good job. We were up by 20 points midway in the second half and then we quite rebounding. We probably went on a 10-minute span where we didn’t get rebounds and let them back into the game. They cut it to four points and then we got it back to 10 points.”

Pedersen said that Tiffany Moorer stepped up playing in place of Amber Kistler, who injured an ankle in the Midland College loss on Friday night. Kistler finished the game with three points, but was limited in what she could do.

Moorer finished the game with 17 points, eight rebounds and two blocks. Pedersen said she had six offensive rebounds with five of them as offensive putbacks for points.

Thais Pinto also finished with double figures, finishing with 11 points. Yuki Morimoto finished with seven points, four assists and three steals.

The Cougars will next be in action this weekend at the Garden City Thanksgiving Classic where they will face Garden City on Friday before facing Seward County Community College on Saturday.

WNCC (6-1) 40 34 – 74
AF Prep 29 34 – 63
WNCC
Amber Kistler 3, Stormye Everett 22, Shelby Campbell 5, Ariana Brown 7, Tiffany Moorer 17, Thais {into 11, Khayla Gladney 4.

WNCC takes third at national tournament

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team didn’t show any emotional drain in the third-place match Saturday at the National Junior College Athletic Association tournament Saturday.

The Cougars (42-4), who fell in an emotional five-set loss to Missouri State West Plains on Friday, responded with authority to capture third place with a 25-17, 27-25, 23-25, 25-17 win over the tournament’s top seed Salt Lake Community College. It was the second straight year the Cougars have captured third place at nationals.

Kaleinani Kabalis, who was named the tournament’s “Complete Coverage Award” for most digs in the tournament, finished with a double-double with 11 kills and 10 digs. Kabalis was also named to the all-tournament team along with teammate Sabina Piegza.

Piegza finished the contest with 39 set assists and two blocks, while Kabalis alsohad three blocks, eight points and two aces.

Kabalis said it is very uplifting that the team put Friday’s heartbreaking loss behind them come home with some hardware.

“This feels real great especially since we lost [on Friday] and then came back and beat the team that beat us early in the season,” she said. “In every single game we fought tonight. We started a little slow, but we finished strong. That is one thing about us that we always can come back and play no matter what. We have heart to do that.”

WNCC coach Giovana Melo said the main focus wasn’t so much on what Salt Lake would do, it was getting her team mentally ready.

“We didn’t go in much detail about Salt Lake. My biggest concern is getting them to bounce back from Friday,” she said. “What we talked about more was playing more with our hearts. I did talk a little bit about Salt Lake, but I told them not to worry about Friday.”

Melo was extremely pleased with the way they bounced back Saturday facing even more adversity after staring middle hitter Tania Torres went down with an ankle injury.

“We faced a lot of adversity throughout the season and it wasn’t any different tonight,” she said. “They learned a lot about playing through adversity during the season. Anybody that comes in really does a good job.

“I am very happy with this win. I think they worked really hard. They showed that they are a team that fights for everything. They did that all year and they did that today, too.”

WNCC started slow as Salt Lake and the Cougars were tied 8-8 early. WNCC then warmed as Brooke Blomenkamp had two kills and Whitney Roth one kill for a 12-8 lead. The Cougars pushed the lead to 18-12 as Kathryn Stock served up three points. Roth finally sealed the set as the 6-foot-1 middle blocker stuffed home a Bruin hit for the winner.

The second set is where the Cougars’ showed a lot of heart. Salt Lake raced to a 14-8 and 16-11 lead. The Cougars, however, dug deep and came storming back and it started on a Roth and Blomenkamp block to slice the lead to 16-13. Salt Lake rebounded to grab a 22-18 and were facing set point at 24-21.

WNCC came back to tie the set at 24-24 as Sabina Piegza had three service points aided by two Kabalis kills. Both teams were then tied at 25 before Kathryn Stock hammered home a kill followed by a service point by Kabalis to give WNCC the win.

The Cougars almost pulled out game three as Salt lake built a 21-13 lead. WNCC then had plenty of heart to bounce back to tie the score at 23-23 as Paulina Piegza had four service point. Salt Lake, however, scored the next two points to win 25-23.

The fourth set was a dogfight at the start as the lead see-sawed back and forth. WNCC finally took control as Cami Weimer had five straight points to put the Cougars up 15-8. Stock then served up two points for a 18-10 lead. Roth had a monster block to make it 22-16 and then the Cougars got kills from Blomenkamp, Paulina Piegza and Stock to finish off Salt Lake.

Kabalis said that while the national title eluded them, she can’t complain with a third place finish.

“I am happy that we did as good as we did last year, but we could have done better,” she said. “We did as good as we could have and we tried our best.”

Also leading the Cougars Saturday included Paulina Piegza with 11 kills, three blocks, and six points; Stock with six kills, two blocks, eight digs, seven points and two aces; Blomenkamp with 11 kills and two blocks; Roth with one kill and five blocks; and Weimer with six digs and seven points.

The all-tournament team included Anzelika Lukianska of Frank Phillips; Aida Bauza of Hillsborough; Yenifer Calcano of Miami Dade; Catalina Charry and Shelbi Zaldain of Salt Lake; Suzy Ni Xu of Iowa Western; Kaleinani Kabalis and Sabina Piegza of WNCC; Patricia Figueiredo and Kate Stepanova of West Plains; and Samantha Misu, Barbara Alcanta and MVP Jessica Peacok of Southern Idaho.

Besides Kabalis earning the top defensive player (most digs) honor, former WNCC player Aida Bauza earned the top hitter award while playing for Hillsborough. Also, Ogallala graduate Kate Morrell earned the top blocker award while playing for Hutchinson Community College.

Tournament results

Championship

Southern Idaho over Missouri State-West Plains 18-25 , 19-25 , 18-25

Third Place Match
WNCC over Salt Lake Community College 25-17 , 27-25 , 23-25 , 25-17

Fifth Place Match
Miami Dade College over Iowa Western 20-25 , 12-25 , 18-25

Seventh Place Match

Hillsborough defeats Frank Phillips 25-16 , 14-25 , 25-18 , 24-26 , 15-12

Ninth Place Match

Hutchinson over San Jacinto College 25-23 , 26-24 , 25-19

Cougar men keep streaking, women fall to Midland in battle of top 10 teams

Submitted by Jeremy Woznick, Star-Herald Sports

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The Western Nebraska Community College men's basketball team ran its winning streak to six in a row with a 75-69 win over Air Force Prep Friday in the Air Force Prep Tournament.
The Cougars are now 6-1 under Russ Beck, who is in his first season as WNCC's head coach.
"It was a good win for us," Beck said. "Air Force has a great team with good size. For us to get a win at their place is a credit to how well the guys played."
Francisco Cruz ignited for 25 points to pace the Cougars in scoring. Jasen Williams also provided plenty of offensive support by pouring in 19 points.
The Cougars were playing without sophomore Scott Bamforth for the second straight game. Bamforth dislocated his elbow in a game last Saturday and could miss an extended amount of time.
Also for WNCC on Friday, Geoffrey Firmin scored nine points and Geddes Robinson added seven. Brylie Kamen led the Cougars on the glass.
In addition to playing well on offense, Beck said his team received a strong defensive performance.
"Air Force runs a Princeton offense with a lot of screening and cutting. It can be very difficult to defend," Beck said. "The key for us was to get pressure on the ball and I thought we did that effectively."
The WNCC women weren't as fortunate Friday. The No. 8 Cougars suffered their first loss of the season to No. 4 Midland College (Texas) in a battle of nationally-ranked teams. WNCC fell 71-63 to drop to 5-1 on the season.
"We knew coming into the game that Midland would be our best test to date," WNCC assistant coach Jennifer Pedersen said. "The effort was definitely there. The kids played hard. We gave up over 25 offensive rebounds and just didn't do the little things tonight."
Trailing by eight at the half, WNCC took a one-point lead in the second half and forged into a number of ties. However, the Cougars missed nine straight free throws at one stretch of the half and missed a couple of critical shots late in the game.
"We trailed by only four with two minutes left and missed two open shots," Pedersen said. "We executed our offense well and got good shots, but we just couldn't put the ball in the hole."
Thais Pinto led WNCC offensively in the contest with 18 points. The 6-foot-7 freshman from Brazil also totaled a team-high six blocks and grabbed five rebounds.
Amber Kistler and Stormye Everett each scored 10 points. Shelby Campbell knocked down a pair of 3-pointers to finish with nine points and Yuki Morimoto added seven.
Campbell collected a team-high five steals for WNCC. Everett led the Cougars with six rebounds and four assists.
"The last five games we played haven't been too hard, so the kids got used to things like not coming to the ball hard or not playing defense hard all the time. They were able to get away with things like that. They definitely couldn't get away with those things tonight," Pedersen said. "I think it was a good thing that they came out here against a team that plays hard all 40 minutes. We competed and played well with them. We just need to do a few of the little things better."
The WNCC women will look to get back on the winning track today. The Cougars will take on Air Force Prep at 11 a.m.
The WNCC men will next be in action at its Thanksgiving Classic Tournament next weekend in Scottsbluff.

WNCC men (6-1) 39 36 - 75
Air Force Prep 28 41 - 69
WNCC
Jasen Williams 19, Geoffrey Firmin 9, O'Rion Hughes 4, Francisco Cruz 25, Al-Akeem Watson 6, Brylie Kamen 5, Geddes Robinson

WNCC women (5-1) 26 37 - 63
Midland 34 37 - 71
WNCC
Amber Kistler 10, Stormye Everett 10, Shelby Campbell 9, Yuki Morimoto 7, Ariane Brown 4, Tiffany Moorer 1, Michelle Glaze 1, Thais Pinto 18, Khayla Gladney 3

WNCC volleyball falls at national tournament, plays Salt Lake for third place

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – The look on the faces of the Western Community College volleyball team said it all; their bid for a national title was abruptly halted after suffering a heartbreaking five-set loss to Missouri State-West Plains.

What makes the 25-18, 17-25, 16-25, 25-23, 15-8 loss hard to take was the Cougars were in the driver’s seat to compete in their third national tournament final in four years. The Cougars held a 20-14 lead in the fourth set before the Grizzlies outscored the Cougars 26-11 the rest of the way. The Grizzlies fierce comeback punched their ticket into the national championship game today against the College of Southern Idaho. CSI topped the No. 1 seed Salt Lake Community College 21-25, 25-17, 25-23, 16-25, 15-10.

Salt Lake and WNCC will battle for third place today at 3:30 p.m. Last year, the Cougars fell in the semi-finals and then topped Iowa Western Community College in five sets for third place.

While the mood on the Cougar’s team is one of heartbreak, they realize they have one more game to pick things up and bring home a trophy back to western Nebraska.

“I don’t really know what happened,” sophomore Brooke Blomenkamp, a Gering graduate, said. “I do know that everyone gave their hearts out there today. Tomorrow is just a new day. We need to forget about today and move on.”

The only reason for the sudden turnaround that Blomenkamp or WNCC coach Giovana Melo offered was maybe the team thought they had the match won too early. Still, as much as the Cougars were hitting on all cylinders in sets two and three, and the first half of the fourth set, it is a mystery of why the energy key was turned off with the team leading 20-14 in the fourth set.

“Maybe we got ahead of ourselves and thought we had it,” Blomenkamp said. “We kind of let the game slip away. We tried to take back control but by then it was too late.”

Melo, who was a loss of words after the game, was still trying to figure out what happened.

“I think we thought we had it won and then I think we got too excited and let it go,” she said.

The Cougars could have easily gave up after dropping the first set 25-18 after leading 8-3 on a Cami Weimer ace serve.

WNCC quickly turned things around in set two and it was the Cougars hitting game and defense that stepped up. WNCC combined for 18 kills in the second set and it was two big kills from Blomenkamp and Kaleinani Kabalis that pushed the Cougars to a 15-10 lead. WNCC opened up a 20-14 lead and kept hitting on all cylinders for the 25-17 win.

The Cougars played extremely well in the third set, racing to a 7-3 lead on three Kathryn Stock service points. Later, Sabina Piegza served up seven straight points for a 17-6 lead. The Grizzlies came back to cut the lead to 20-15, but WNCC received a kill from Paulina Piegza and three Weimer service points to win 25-18.

The Cougars took control of the fourth set early as Weimer had three points for a 4-0 lead. West Plains came back to tied the set at 7-7 only to see Tania Torres hammer home two kills and team up with Blomenkamp on a block to help WNCC to a 16-10 lead.

The Cougars pushed the lead to 20-14 late and led 21-15 before the Grizzlies Patricia Figueiredo had three service points to cut the deficit to 21-19. West Plains tied the score at 22-22 on two Perla Quintana. Paulina Piegza hammered home a kill to put WNCC up 23-22, but the Grizzlies scored the last three points to force a fifth game.

In the fifth set, WNCC held a 4-3 lead, but that was the last time they would lead as the Grizzlies’ Janel Glidden had five service points for a 9-4 lead and WNCC could never get back on track.

Melo said that her team fought hard, especially to come back to win sets two and three, and expects her team to rebound.

“I think we started to play with a lot of heart in the second set, but we just let it go,” she said. “We showed a lot of character all year [in tough situations] so I am sure they are going to come back and play hard.”

WNCC had four players net double-figure kills. Kaleinani Kabalis finished with 21 kills, followed by Paulina Piegza with 16, Kathryn Stock with 13, Blomenkamp with 10, and Tania Torres with six. Torres also had three solo blocks, while Paulina Piegza had two solo blocks.

Also for WNCC, Sabina Piegza had 57 set assists, six points and nine digs; Kaleinani Kabalis had eight points and 22 digs; Kuulei Kabalis had seven points and 19 digs; Weimer had nine points, two aces, and 10 digs; Stock had seven points and 11 digs; and Paulina Piegza had five points and three digs.

The tournament today has Hutchinson facing San Jacinto for ninth place at 11 a.m., Frank Phillips facing Hillsborough for seventh place at 11 a.m. Iowa Western taking on Miami Dade for fifth place at 1:30 p.m., WNCC meeting Salt Lake for third at 3:30 p.m. and Southern Idaho facing West Plains for the championship at 5:30 p.m.

Former WNCC coach, player leads Alaska Anchorage to West Region win

For tournament photos see the University of Alaska Anchorage athletic website at goseawolves.com

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - Sophomore Jackie Matthisen had a match-high 19 kills and made three consecutive huge plays in the final three points of the match Thursday to lift the Alaska Anchorage volleyball team to its first-ever NCAA Tournament victory, 29-27, 28-26, 21-25, 16-25, 15-12, over 14th-ranked Hawaii Hilo at Coyote Gymnasium.

The Seawolves (23-7) - the tournament's No. 5 seed - also got 11 kills from sophomore outside hitter McKenzie Moss as they handed the Vulcans just their second loss of the season and avenged an 0-3 setback in Oahu in September.

The 4th-seeded Vulcans (25-2), champions of the Pacific West Conference, were led by 12 kills apiece from outside hitters Josimara Pinheiro and Kawena Cubi-Otineru.

UAA pulled out nail-biting wins in the first and second sets to take an early 2-0 advantage. In the first, the Vulcans fought of three set points to tie it 24-24, and Pinheiro gave her team 25-24 and 26-25 leads with a pair of kills. Tied at 27-27, Pinheiro hit into the block of freshman Marie Borowikow and senior Ashley Bates. Moss then registered a kill on an off-speed attack to give the Seawolves the set.

The second set was tight throughout, featuring 14 ties and six lead changes. Trailing 24-23, Bates rescued the Seawolves with a kill just inside the endline, and Bates and Borowikow followed with a solo block. Cubi-Otinera ripped a kill to make it 26-26, but Borowikow notched one of her six kills, and Moss came through on set point again.

But UAA fell behind early in sets 3 and 4 as the Vulcans seemed to grab all of the momentum.

Hilo led 8-6 in the fifth when the teams switched sides of the court, and took a 10-7 lead moments later. That provided the cue for UAA's final rally, with Borowikow and Moss making consecutive kills, and UHH's Morgan Bonney hitting the ball out of bounds.

The Vulcans took a 12-11 lead on Pinheiro's final kill before UAA rallied with the final four points of the match. Junior Cortney Lundberg (8 kills, 6 total blocks) slammed a kill into the middle of the court for yet another tie, and Matthisen overpowered Bonney on a joust at the net to go up 13-12. The next point was almost a carbon copy as Matthisen met Katie Swenson at the net and forced the Vulcan setter into a double-hit.

With senior libero Stacie Meisner serving on match point, the Vulcans were unable to get off an attack, and UAA took advantage by setting Matthisen, who blasted a cross-court kill, setting off a Seawolf celebration.

Meisner finished with a match-high 29 digs, while senior setter Scott - the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Player-of-the-Year - dished 45 assists and contributed on three of UAA's season-high-tying 15 blocks.

"Our block was a lot stronger than the first time we played them," said UAA head coach Chris Green, whose team extended its school-record win streak to 13. "I think we played nervous throughout, but the players have really bought into our philosophy and stuck with it. Just like all season, they never panicked."

Bates, a senior middle blocker, notched four kills and matched her career-high with seven total blocks (all assists). Borowikow also had total seven blocks.

The Great Northwest Athletic Conference champions now move on to Friday's regional semifinal match (6:30 p.m. AST) against the winner of top-seeded and nationally 2nd-ranked Cal State-San Bernardino vs. GNAC rival Seattle Pacific.

Thursday's early results included 6th-seeded Cal State-Los Angeles upsetting 3rd-seeded Sonoma State in five sets, while 2nd-seeded and nationally 3rd-ranked UC San Diego disposed of 7th-seeded San Francisco State, 3-0.

WNCC women's basketball team goes to 5-0 with win over Northern Oklahoma

COLORADO SPRINGS, Wyo. — The Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team continued its stellar start to the season Thursday, combining a stingy defense with an efficient offense to roll past Northern Oklahoma 75-57 in the first day of the Air Force Prep Tournament.

The victory boosted the No. 8 Cougars’ season record to 5-0. All of WNCC’s wins have been by more than 10 points.

“We came out defensively pretty strong tonight and went on a big run to get a big lead going into halftime,” WNCC assistant coach Jennifer Pedersen said. “I thought we played better as a group than we did last week. We ran our offense a little bit better tonight, and I thought we did some good things on defense early in the game.”

WNCC spurted ahead by 30 points at one point in the second half; however, Northern Oklahoma heated up from the 3-point line to close the gap a bit. Twenty-four of Northern Oklahoma’s points came on 3-pointers.

“In the second half we went on about an eight-minute scoring drought, and they picked up their play,” Pedersen said. “They hit some key threes and were able to come back in a hurry. They went on an 18-5 run, so we kind of let down on our defense a little bit. That’s something we’re going to have to step up.”

Yuki Morimoto, a freshman from Tokyo, Japan, sparked the Cougars with 11 points, five rebounds, three steals, and two blocks. Thais Pinto had 13 points and two blocks, and Kelli Culver contributed 15 points, including three 3-pointers. Stormye Everett had five rebounds, and Shelby Campbell collected three steals.

As a team, WNCC registered seven blocks and 33 rebounds.

Pedersen said she expects WNCC to get tested a lot more today against Midland College (Texas), which is ranked No. 4 in the nation.

“They’re good,” Pedersen said. “They’ve had a pretty long week of traveling so, hopefully, they’re worn out a little bit. But they’re always a solid team. They have some big kids, and they have some sophomore leadership that we’re going to have to contend with.”

WNCC 40 35—75
N. Okla. 22 35—57
WNCC
Amber Kistler 9, Stormye Everett 4, Shelby Campbell 5, Yuki Morimoto 11, Ariane Brown 2, Tynetta Turner 2, Carolina Alves 2, Michelle Glaze 8, Thais Pinto 13, Kelli Culver 15, Khayla Gladney 4.

WNCC moves into Final Four at National Volleyball Tourney with two wins

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team earned a berth in the NJCAA national tournament Final Four for the sixth straight year with a pair of victories Thursday in the first day of the national tournament in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

The Cougars opened the tournament as Kaleinani Kabalis and Kathryn Stock combined for 24 kills to help WNCC sweep Wallace State-Hanceville 25-21, 25-20, 25-14.

WNCC then picked up win No. 41 as they needed four sets to get past Frank Phillips College 25-17, 25-22, 20-25, 25-16 and a berth in the Final Four. The Cougars will face Missouri State-West Plains at 6:30 p.m. (CST) with a berth in the championship match at state.

The two wins also was a monumental achievement for WNCC coach Giovana Melo, who picked up her 100^th career coaching victory in just two years at WNCC.

Sophomore Cami Weimer said not only does it feel good to be in the Final Four, but the team is excited that Melo registered her 100^th win at the national tournament.

“It feels good knowing that we have been successful for the last two years and we are able to contribute to coaches’ 100^th win,” Weimer said. “Hopefully she can get two more wins the rest of the tournament.”

WNCC, however, didn’t play its best, but found the right combinations to become one of only four unbeaten teams left in the tournament.

“I think at the beginning [against Wallace State] we started off a little slow and then in the second game we picked it up a lot and we started playing like we know how to play,” Weimer said. “It feels good to be in the Final Four especially since last year when we lost [in the semifinals].”

Kabalis and Weimer recorded a double-doubles against Frank Phillips. Kabalis finished with 13 kills and 17 digs, while Weimer had 11 digs and 11 points. Brooke Blomenkamp also came up big with eight kills, while Paulina Piegza ahd six kills and three blocks.

WNCC opened up a tight first set. Frank Phillips trailed 11-10 before the Cougars received clutch kills from Kabalis and Blomenkamp for a 17-13 lead. Stock then served four points for a 22-14, and then Blomenkamp hammered home the set winner.

WNCC held a 17-10 lead in the second set on two Weimer service points and pushed the lead to 21-14 on a Kabalis kill. Frank Phillips came back to slice the lead to 22-21 before kills from Kabalis, Blomenkamp and Torres gave WNCC the win.

The Cougars ran out to a 17-11 lead in the third set as Kuulei Kabalis served three points. Frank Phillips’ Artzeilka Lukjanska and Aisiniya Savcheva combined for 10 service points and four aces to give the Plainsmen a 23-19 lead.

The fourth set was close to start as the teams were tied at 7-7. WNCC changed things quickly as Stock had two kills and then Paulina and Sabina Piegza combined for six service points for a 20-11 lead. WNCC put Frank Phillips away on two Stock kills to move into the semi-finals.

Also for the Cougars against Frank Phillips, Kathryn Stock had five kills, nine digs, eight points and three aces; Tania Torres had four kills; Kuulei Kabalis had 10 digs and seven points; and Sabina Piegza had 32 set assists and 10 points.

Weimer said while they are playing well, they need to pick up their game for Friday’s contest.

“I think we are playing really, really well,” she said. “I think we can play even better then we played in the last two games. We are looking forward to the next game.

In the national tournament opener, WNCC struggled at times against the No. 15^th-seeded Wallace State. The Lady Lions held a 10-8 lead in the first set and the Cougars were tied with the Alabama squad 17-17. WNCC fought back on kills by Paulina Piegza and Stock to take a 24-21 lead. Kabalis finished off the first set with a service point.

Wallace State started set two off with a bang, grabbing a 6-0 lead behind the serving of Cassie Daniels. WNCC fought back to tie the set at 11 on a Sabina Piegza kill. WNCC pushed the lead to 16-14 only to watch the Lady Lions come back to tie the set on back-to-back ace serves by Jessica Wilburn.

Stock hammered home a kill to stop the bleeding and then Ariel Austin hammered home a kill to make it 20-18. Stock hammered home two kills and then served the final three points to give the Cougars the second set 25-20.

WNCC made easy work of the Lady Lions in the third set, getting clutch kills from Kabalis hammered home two early kills and two points to give the Cougars to a 7-4 third set win. Torres then had the final three kills for points, including the match winner.

Stock finished with a double-double of 10 kills and 11 digs. Stock also had four points. Kabalis finished with 14 kills, nine points and eight digs; while Paulina Piegza had nine kills and four points.

Also for the Cougars, Austin had seven kills and three blocks; Torres with five kills; Sabina Piegza with four kills, four digs and 29 set assists; Cami weimer had six digs; and Kuulei Kabalis had 11 set assists.

In other scores from the national tournament, Missouri State-West Plains topped Northwest (Wyo.) College 18-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-23; Iowa Western Community College topped Temple College 25-19, 21-25, 25-16, 23-25, 15-8, Frank Phillips beat San Jacinto 25-22, 17-25, 17-25, 25-17, 19-17; Salt lake topped Spartanburg Methodist 25-8, 25-12, 25-16; Hillsborough beat Hutchinson 25-21, 25-17, 25-18; Miami Dade topped Panola 15-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-23; Southern Idaho topped Seminole State 25-17, 25-12, 25-19; Missouri State West Plains beat Iowa Western 17-25, 25-16, 25-13, 25-20; Salt Lake beat Hillsborough 25-21, 25-15, 25-20; and Southern Idaho beat Miami Dade 25-21, 21-25, 25-20, 25-14.

Today’s Schedule

9 a.m. – Temple vs. Northwest Wyoming, San Jacinto vs. Wallace State

11 a.m. -- Spartanburg Methodist vs. Hutchinson, Seminole State vs. Panola

1:30 p.m. – Iowa Western vs. Frank Phillips, Hillsborough vs. Miami Dade

3:30 p.m. – Winners of the 10 a.m. and noon games

5:30 p.m. – West Plains vs. Western Nebraska, Salt Lake vs. Southern Idaho.

WNCC men's basketball wins fifth straight, Cruz egnites for 26 points

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Francisco Cruz nailed six 3-pointers and finished with 26 points as the Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team recorded its fifth straight win with a 97-75 win over the Pac West All-stars Thursday at the Air Force Prep Invite.

Cruz, though, wasn’t the only Cougar to shine offensively as four other players recorded double figure scoring. Geddes Robinson finished with 18 points followed by O’Rion Hughes with 13, jasen Williams with 12 and Brylle Kamen with 10.

WNCC coach Russ Beck said he was pleased with the team’s offensive output, but they still need to work on the defensive end.

“I am not worried about our offense because we got guys that can score,” he said. “I am more concerned with our defense and holding teams down. If you can hold a team down defensively, you will win games.”

Beck said that what helped in this game was that his squad got out in front of the Pac West early, holding a 54-33 lead. Beck said they got good play from his bench to help with the team’s depth.

The Cougars will be back in action Friday when they face Air Force Prep. Beck said he expects a tough contest considering Air Force Prep topped North Platte Community College by double digits Thursday evening.

WNCC (5-1) 54 43 – 97
Pac West 33 42 – 75
WNCC
Francisco Cruz 26, Geddes Robinson 18, O’Rion Hughes 13, Jasen Williams 12, Bryalle Kamen 10, Al-Akeem Watson 6, Saul Torres 4, Geoffrey Firmin 2.

Photos from Frank Phillips and WNCC volleyball match

WNCC volleyball opens national tourney with sweep over Wallace State

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – Western Nebraska Community College’s kaleinani Kabalis and Kathryn Stock combined for 24 kills and the Cougars opened the NJCAA national tournament with a sweep of Wallace State-Hanceville Thursday at the Mid-America Center.

The Cougars topped the Lady Lions 25-21, 25-20, 25-14 ro advance into the quarterfinals today at 5:30 (CST). The Cougars will face Frank Phillips who registered a dramatic five-set win against San Jacinto College 25-22, 17-25, 17-25, 25-17, 19-17.

It took a while for the Cougars to get warmed up against the No. 15 seeded Wallace State. The Lady Lions held a 10-8 lead in the first set and were tied with the Alabama squad 17-17 on a Raegen Key ace serve. WNCC fought back on kills by Paulina Piegza and Stock to take a 24-21 lead. Kabalis finished off the first set with a service point.

Wallace State started set two off with a bang, grabbing a 6-0 lead behind the serving of Cassie Daniels. WNCC fought back to tie the set at 11 on a Sabina Piegza kill. WNCC pushed the lead to 16-14 only to watch the Lady Lions come back to tied the set on back-to-back ace serves by Jessica Wilburn.

Stock hammered home a kill to stop the bleeding and then Ariel Austin hammered home a kill to make it 20-18. Stock hammered home two kills and then served the final three points to give the Cougars the second set 25-20.

Kabalis hammered home two early kills and two points to give the Cougars to a 7-4 third set win. WNCC pushed the lead to 9-5 on two Paulina Piegza service points and two Kabalis kills. The Cougars continued playing well as Sabina Piegza had three points and then Cami Weimer served up two points for a 17-9 lead. WNCC put the game away as Tania Torres had two of the final three kills for points, including the match winner.

Stock finished with a double-double of 10 kills and 11 digs. Stock also had four points. Kabalis finished with 14 kills, nine points and eight digs; while Paulina Piegza had nine kills and four points.

Also for the Cougars, Austin had seven kills and three blocks; Torres with five kills; Sabina Piegza with four kills, four digs and 29 set assists; Cami weimer had six digs; and Kuulei Kabalis had 11 set assists.

In other scores from the national tournament, Missouri State-West Plains topped Northwest (Wyo.) College 18-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-23, and Iowa Western Community College topped Temple College 25-19, 21-25, 25-16, 23-25, 15-8.

WNCC volleyball team ready for national tournament; tournament begins Thursday at 10 a.m. against Wallace State

The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team’s quest for a second national title in three years will begin Thursday as the No. 3 ranked Cougars participate in its 11^th straight NJCAA national tournament.

There is definitely a sense of excitement in the Cougar players’ eyes. They are ready to get the show on the road.

“We are enthusiastic and really excited to be here,” sophomore outside hitter Kaleinani Kabalis said. “We are prepared to play the best of the 16 teams in the nation. We are really excited because one doesn’t know how much this means to us.”

The Cougars’ quest begins at 10 a.m. when they face the No. 15 seed Wallace State-Hanceville in the first round at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The Lady Lions enter the tournament with a sparkling 34-4 record. WNCC enters the tournament with a 39-3 record. The winner moves on to play a quarterfinal contest at 4:30 p.m. Thursday against the winner of the Frank Phillips College or San Jacinto College. The loser falls into the consolation bracket and 9 a.m. match on Friday against the loser of the Frank Phillips/San Jacinto match.

Salt Lake Community College, ranked fourth in the final regular season polls, leap-frogged the Cougars to garner the No. 1 seed in the tournament. Salt Lake defeated the Cougars back in the first weekend of September. Salt Lake faces Spartanburg Methodist. Salt Lake and WNCC earned the No. 1 and 2 seeds after the top two teams in the polls, North Idaho College and Blinn College, lost in their regional tournaments. Blinn won the championship last year.

Kabalis said that it doesn’t bother the team that they are the No. 2 seed since you will have to play the best to be No. 1.

“It doesn’t matter if you are seeded one or two because you still have to play the best,” she said. “it will take heart and teamwork to win. We all just love volleyball and it will take everything we worked for throughout the season to make us No. 1.”

WNCC definitely holds the advantage of national tournament appearances over Wallace State. Wallace State is making its 7^th tournament appearance all-time, the last time in 2003. The Cougars have been to the national tourney 12 times, including the last 11 years. WNCC has finished in the top four the last five years, including a national title in 2007 and a runner-up finish in 2006

Kabalis said the key to success is playing like the Mid-America Center is Cougar Palace.

“Our sophomores have been there and we tell the freshmen that they need to play like it is our gym and we won the gym; it is our house,” she said. “We just need to keep playing as a team and as won because we know how to get there.”

The Cougars are 15-1 while playing in that arena. They were 12-0 in 2007 including going 8-0 in the season-opening tournament and then 4-0 and a national title in November. Last year, the Cougars went 3-1 at the national tournament, falling to the University of Arkansas-Ft. Smith in the semifinals and then topped Iowa Western Community College in a five=set thriller for third place.

Kabalis said they can’t take any team lightly. They just have to go out and play their game and that includes staying up and having fun.

“When we have fun, scream and yell, it just gets us excited because it puts us in a more positive mindset,” she said. “I think if we play like how we are off the court [crazy], then no one can stop us because we can dominated everyone.”

The Cougars are playing some of their best volleyball after dominating the competition at the Region IX tournament. WNCC swept through Otero Junior College in the opener. They then defeated Northeastern Junior College in three straight in the semifinals. They then topped the Plainswomen in straight sets in the final. The sweep was especially sweet since the Plainswomen defeated the Cougars in five sets on Oct. 28 and stopping a 165-match win streak that WNCC held over Region IX competition that dated back to 2005.

“We have to continue to play like we did at regionals,” Kabalis said. “We played great as a team and played really good. We played smart and played all together. We played as one instead of 13.”

WNCC has to enter the tournament expecting to get the best from their opponents, and Wallace State is not easy team. Wallace State features a young squad with just four sophomores. They also have five players that stand 5-foot-10 or taller. Middle hitter Rachel Mitchell is the Lady Lions tallest player at 6-foot. Sophomore Cassie Daniels was named the Region XXII tournament most valuable player. Daniels had 40 set assists in the championship match. Danials is a 5-8 setter from Alabama.

WNCC features a potent lineup including Kabalis who is the nation’s leading hitter and one of only nine Cougar hitters to amass over 1,000 career kills. WNCC also has the services sophom0re setter Sabina Piegza, who missed the final two weeks of the regular season with a knee injury.

The one good thing that came out of Piegza’s injury is a number of other players stepped up. The Cougars now have a very versatile team that can run either a 5-1 one offense or a 6-2 with freshmen Kuulei Kabalis and Sierra Schmidt seeing time at setter.

The Cougars also saw some strong libero play from freshman Emily Hoehn and sophomore Cami Wiemer. Weimer came up big in the two NJC regional tournament matches with some clutch saves. WNCC also have received a balanced offensive output from Kaleinani Kabalis, Kathryn Stock, Brooke Blomenkamp, Tania Torres and Ariel Austin at the regional tournament.

Kaleinani Kabalis said the team’s depth definitely has been one of the reason’s this team has posted a 39-3 record.

“We have been successful this year because we all have the same mindset. When it comes to the court, we know what we want and we go for it. We don’t hold hack,” she said. “We are all equal in talent as well and that is good because we play at the same level. We push each other to be good. If someone is down, we push each other to be at the others level or push each other to be at the level that we are suppose to be at .”

The contests can be heard live on Kozy 101.3 FM or on the Internet at www.kozy1013.com. The tournament will also be video streamed this season on the NJCAA website at www.njcaa.org.

First round action match-ups include No. 3 Iowa Western (40-4) against No. 14 Temple College (22-21), No. 6 MSU-West Plains (24-8) against No. 11 Northwest (Wyo.) College (25-8), No. 7 San Jacinto (30-7) against No. 10 Frank Phillips College (28-10), No. 1 Salt Lake (27-7) against No. 16 Spartanburg Methodist (10-17),No. 9 Hillsborough Community College (29-8) against No. 8 Hutchinson (30-8), No. 5 Miami Dade (29-4) against No. 12 Panola College (26-7), and No. 4 College of Southern Idaho (28-6) against No. 13 Seminole State (22-15). The championship is slated for Saturday at 5:30 p.m. (MST).