Western Nebraska Community College’s Chris Green is surprised with the brackets for this year National Junior College Athletic Association national volleyball tournament. WNCC did receive the No. 1 seed, as expected, and will play No. 16 seed Cape Fear Community College at 1 p.m. Monday. After that, the teams were shuffled.
“It was a bit surprising that they did not seed teams according to the last poll,” Green said. “For example, North Idaho got a No. 4 seed when they were ranked No. 8 in the country. I am not sure who decided how to seed the teams and why some teams got moved up and others moved down, but no matter the seeding, after the first round, the competition for us will be very, very tough.”
Green knows very little about Cape Fear, except that they came on strong at the end of the season. “It looks like they have improved throughout the season,” Green said. “They closed out the season with a win over a team they hadn’t beat in their previous match ups.”
After the Cape Fear match, the Cougars will have a tough second round facing either the No. 8 seed Frank Phillips (37-5) or No. 9 Hillsborough (38-3). Green said both squads are salty. "Frank Phillips has one of the best players in junior college and have been very successful this year,” he said. “Hillsborough upset Miami Dade in their last game of the year [for the state championship], so both teams are formidable.”
Other teams that that the Cougars could face in the semi-finals are No. 5 Miami Dade (22-6) who takes on No. 12 Hutchinson Community College (22-13) in the first round, and No. 4 North Idaho College (34-6) or faces No. 13 Western Wyoming Community College (38-5) in the first round.
The other first round match-ups will have No. 3 Iowa Western Community College (56-4) facing No. 14 Temple College (18-17), No. 6 Blinn College (31-3) meeting No. 11 Salt Lake Community College (27-15), No. 7 University of Ft. Smith-Arkansas (37-5) meeting No. 10 San Jacinto College (24-9); and No. 2 MSU-West Plains (38-5) facing No. 15 Northwest Shoals (35-7).
Green, though, doesn’t have a problem with the bracketing realizing that anything is possible at the national tournament.
“I think it looks like a pretty fair bracket,” he said. “Seeds 1 through 13 are all very good teams, so it really didn’t matter how you bracket it. There will be many great match ups early in the tournament.”
WNCC, though, goes into the tournament having played one of the toughest schedules with wins over six of the national tournament participants. The team’s only defeat came against North Idaho the first weekend in September.
Since then, the team has dominated the competition having defeated North Idaho, Salt Lake, Iowa Western, Arkansas-Ft. Smith, Western Wyoming and Hutchinson. The Cougars have won 44 straight matches and have only dropped individual games to Hutchinson and Northeastern Junior College during that stretch.
“We have played well in tournaments,” he said. “I think the fact that we have played many of these teams already this season is going to help us. The tough competition we faced at Salt Lake, at Seward County, and with NJC being so strong, will help us more than anything.”
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