Cougar volleyball wins 50th match over LCCC

The Western Nebraska Community College finished the regular season portion of its schedule on a good note with a sweep of Laramie County Community College Wednesday at Cheyenne.

The Cougars showcased their No. 1 ranking early in getting the 30-9, 30-14, 31-29 win. It was also the team’s 50th win of the season and pushed the Cougars win streak to 41 matches.

“We served tough in the first two games and they couldn’t run much of an offense because of our tough serving.” WNCC coach Chris Green said. “We had a completely different line up out there in the third game and it is tough to adjust when you mix up the lineup as much as we did.

WNCC’s dominance in the first two games was sparkling, and it was Soriana Pacheco’s serving that baffled the Golden Eagle defenders. Pacheco had 15 of her match high 17 points in the opening two games, including five aces.

In the second game, the freshman from Venezuela started the game with nine straight points before a missed serve stopped the rally. It didn’t matter as WNCC went on to post the 30-14 win and never let the Golden Eagles come within single digits.

The second game was a little tougher as WNCC mixed up the lineup. Still, the Cougars depth was too much. Laramie County held game point at 30-29, until Pacheco put down a kill and then proceeded to serve the final two points, the final an ace, for the win.

Jenny Eichler led the team with 11 kills. The 6-foot rightside hitter also had four blocks. Barbara Freitas also had a good night finishing with eight kills, nine digs, seven points and two aces.

Also for the Cougars, Leticia Kuhn had nine kills, three digs, three points and two aces; Hailey Mueller finished with three blocks and two kills; Shawntell Jones getting three blocks; Pacheco collecting 17 points six kills, three digs, two blocks, 29 set assists and six aces; Kendra Schauermann finishing with three kills, three digs, six points and two aces; Jillian Kelly netting seven points and three kills; Bianca Rivera getting five kills, 11 digs and four points; Stacie Meisner finishing with six points and one ace; and Cassie Vrooman and Becky Hughes with one kill.

The Cougars, 50-1, are now off until they host the regional tournament next week. Green said they had a nice regular season, finishing on top of the NJCAA national polls for the seventh week.

“We worked hard during the regular season and now from here on out the post season is what is counting. If you lose twice, you are done. From here on out it is due or die,” he said. “I hope we can play like we did in the first two games at regionals, where our serving was really tough. If we can do that in Cougar Palace, we will be hard to beat, and then going into the national tournament the No. 1 seed would be a great accomplishment for this team. Hopefully, we can push toward that.”