Wyo-Braska Shootout tourney in full bloom; WNCC women open with 3-game win over Sheridan

For more action photos of the tournament, check out the WNCC Athletic Photo Album at wncccougars.albumpost.com

Defense wins contests and the Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team continue to showcase a defense that is exciting Chris Green after the first day of the Wyo-Braska Shootout tournament.

“Defensively, we are doing some pretty nice things,” WNCC coach Chris Green said. “We are a pretty good offense team, but I think our defense as really improved throughout the year and even more then our offense. We have become a better defensive team in the last month or so, and that helps us win a lot of points.”

Eastern Wyoming Coach Verl Petsch, who’s team went 1-2 in the tournament, also praised his team’s defensive effort.

“All day we had a real good defensive effort. We just had trouble hanging with the big kids,” he said. “Our defense was really good today and our middle game is starting to come around then it was early in the year.”

The Cougars finished the first day 3-0 opening the tournament with a 30-27, 30-20, 30-10 win over a talented Sheridan College squad. They then defeated Northwest College 30-14, 30-15, 30-14, before taking down Western Wyoming 30-13, 30-12, 30-20.

EWC went 1-2 falling to Seward County Community College 30-24, 30-19, 30-24, and Colby Community College 30-25, 30-27, 30-26. They then bounced back and defeated Air Force Prep in five games 29-31, 22-30, 30-19, 30-25, 15-12.

In deed both EWC and WNCC had impressive defensive shows on Thursday with both teams having strong games in their final matches on the day.

For WNCC, it was their defensive hustle that stood out on the day, especially in the Western Wyoming Community College match where Nayka Benitez finished with a season-high 21 digs and while Soriana Pacheco popped in 24 points. The strong defensive play, which included plenty of hustling saves and pancakes, helped No. 1-ranked Cougar women sweep three matches in the first day of the tournament.

“I think we played pretty well this last match of the day against a pretty good Western Wyoming team,” Green said. “We started out slow against Sheridan but after we woke up, I think we played pretty well. I think we played some pretty good volleyball on our side.

“Western Wyoming has good ball control and they are a great defensive team,” Green said. “We had a lot of long rallies and they played great defense. We had to work for our points against this team. We like to have those kind of matches.”

Eastern Wyoming also turned in several solid performances in the Air Force Prep match. Lora Hill finished with a triple-double with 21 points, 24 set assists and 10 digs. Also, Sara Gipfert had 12 digs and 20 kills, wile Jackie Onigheit and Andrea Hockley teamed up with seven and five blocks respectively.

It doesn’t’ get any easier for either team today. The Lancers will have Trinidad State at 9 a.m. before taking on Northeastern Colorado at 4 p.m. The Cougars will have three matches today, opening up with Miles Community College at 9 a.m. followed by contests with Casper College at 4 p.m. and then No. 14 Seward County Community College at 8 p.m.

“We played them [Seward County] once and I think they are hungry to play us again. I don’t think they played as well as they could when we played them in Sterling,” Green said. “I think they are looking forward to meeting us tomorrow night.”

WNCC, after being pushed to the limit in game one against Sheridan, came out and won the rest of the games in workmanlike fashion. And, it wasn’t any one person that stood out in the matches.

Against Sheridan, the Cougars had a balanced scoring attack led by Pacheco’s 23 points and six aces. Benitez also tossed in 13 points followed by Fatima Balza and Kendra Schaauermann with nine points and Daphine da Silva with six.

The Cougars were just as potent with their offense as sophomore Jennifer Eichler finished with 14 kills and two blocks. Aida Bauza finished with nine kills and four blocks, while Chelsea Lyles had five kills and five blocks.

WNCC win, though, wasn’t easy as Sheridan jumped on top 60 behind the serving Sara Malmlov. The Generals kept frustrating the top-ranked Cougars for much of the game leading 13-8 and 18-15.

WNCC didn’t take their first lead until a Pacheco ace to make it 20-19. But it was short-lived as Sheridan led 24-22 on a Katie Degal kill.

That was when Eichler stepped up with a huge kill and then Benitez served up four points behind two strong kills by Eichler to push the lead to 27-24. Sheridan sliced the lead to 28-27, only to see WNCC come back on a Bauza kill to grab game one.

WNCC used strong serving and excellent defense to claim games two and three against Sheridan, who came into the tournament at 17-4 and received votes in the latest NJCAA national polls. The second game was highlighted by four service points each by da Silva and Benitez.

Game three was all WNCC as they jumped out to a 7-1 lead and 21-6. During that span, Pacheco had nine points and four ace serves to help the Cougars to the win.

WNCC continued to flex its depth and talent in its next two matches against Northwest and Western Wyoming. Against Norhwest, the Cougar’s da Silva stepped up with a double-double, finishing with 19 points and 13 digs. The freshman from Brazil also had six kills and one ace.

Also for WNCC, Pacheco finished with 14 points, four aces and 21 set assists; Balza had six points, two aces, three kills and five blocks; Benitez had eight points, seven aces, five digs and five kills; Schauermann had three points and five digs; Eichler had three blocks and 11 kills; and Stacie Meisner had three points and eight digs.

As much as WNCC was heating up in the first two matches, they really stormed the court against Western Wyoming, where the team combined for 47 kills, 56 points and 60 digs. Pacheco paced the team with 24 points, four aces, eight digs, six kills and 33 set assists.

Also for the Cougars, Lyles had three kills, four digs, four blocks and two solo blocks; Eichler had nine kills and four digs; Balza had 12 kills, eight points and three digs; da Silva had three kills, nine points, two aces and nine digs; Benitez had seven points, three aces and 21 digs; Schauermann had eight points and three digs; and Meisner had three kills and eight digs.

As for the Lancers, Gipfert paced the team with 10 kills against Seward County, while Sarah Blausey had 15 set assists and 12 digs. Hockley finished with five blocks and Josey Peterson had three points.

Against Colby, Hill led the team with 10 points and 18 set assists, followed by Gipfert with 10 kills and 13 digs, and Peterson with 17 digs.

In the Lancers’ win against Air Force, Tricia Dorshorst had 15 kills while Peterson had 10 digs.

In other action in the tournament at Cougar Palace, McCook Community College defeated Miles Community College 30-21, 30-28, 36-30, 30-20; Northeastern Junior College beat Western Wyoming 19-30, 30-23, 26-30, 30-24, 15-10; Sheridan needed five to get by McCook 30-24, 26-30, 30-19, 17-30, 9-15; Northeastern Colorado defeated Miles 30-10, 30-10, 30-28; Northeastern Colorado downed Northwest Wyoming 30-21, 30-24, 30-16; and Western Wyoming defeated McCook 30-20, 30-19, 31-29.

In other action at Torrington, Casper College defeated Colby Community College 21-30, 30-27, 30-16, 30-24; Laramie County Community College beat Trinidad State 24-30, 30-26, 30-24, 30-22; Casper over Air Force Prep 30-15, 30-15, 33-31; Seward County over Laramie County 30-23, 30-19, 30-22; Casper over Trinidad State 30-25, 30-14, 30-12.; and Laramie County over Air Force Prep 30-20, 30-28, 30-21.

Friday’s Schedule
At Scottsbluff
9 a.m. – WNCC vs. Miles City, and NE Colorado vs. Sheridan; 11 a.m. – McCook vs. NW Wyoming; 2 p.m. McCook vs. Air Force, and NW Wyoming vs. Seward County; 4 p.m. – WNCC vs. Casper, and Miles City vs. Seward County; 6 p.m. – Miles City vs. Air Force; 8 p.m. – WNCC vs. Seward County, and NW Wyoming vs. Air Force.
At Torrington
9 a.m. – EWC vs. Trinidad State, and Casper vs. Seward County; 11 a.m. – Laramie County vs. Colby; 2 p.m. – Western Wyoming vs. Trinidad State; 4 p.m. – Eastern Wyoming vs. NE Colorado; 6 p.m. – Western Wyoming vs. Colby, and Sheridan vs. Trinidad State; 8 p.m. – Sheridan vs. Colby, and NE Colorado vs. Laramie County.