WNCC volleyball team opens regional tournament on Friday

Everything the WNCC volleyball team has played for during the regular season comes down to one weekend — the Region IX tournament in Trinidad, Colo.

The Cougars, enter the tournament as the favorite after running through the regular season with a 47-2 record, a 10-0 sub-region record and a No. 5 ranking in the nation. The Cougars have also been ranked No. 1 in the country for much of the season until stumbling in one match on Oct. 13 to Frank Phillips College.

WNCC head coach Chris Green said his team is always ready for regionals, and this year will be no different.

“We always prepare hard for the tournament,” he said. “I think NJC will be the team to beat again. They have the hitters and the ball control to give us a challenge.”

WNCC earned a first-round bye because of its domination in regional matches. WNCC will play the winner of the Trinidad State and Lamar contest at 11 a.m. Friday. Trinidad and Lamar will face each other on Thursday. The other side of the bracket has Otero meeting McCook on Thursday with the winner facing Northeastern Colorado Friday at 9 a.m.

“Trinidad has improved a lot since the beginning/middle of the year. They will also be playing on their home court, so I think they will be a challenge,” Green said. “Lamar is a very scrappy team who plays very good defense. Offensively, they keep the ball in play and will let the other team make the mistakes.”

For WNCC, though, they have been the class of Region IX for the past eight years, winning every regional tournament that Green has coached in.

This year, the team has bigger goals and that is to get back to the national tournament and try to revenge last year’s heartbreaking loss in the national title match.

What has been impressive in the way WNCC as controlled its stranglehold on the region is the way they have been winning

Sure, at times they have struggled in wins against the lower teams. But when they have to win, they play to the top level. That is something that has impressed Green.

“I am proud of how we respond to adversity this year,” he said. “Last year we had a different type of attitude when we fell behind or weren’t playing at our best. But this year the players have shown resilliancy when they are down. Hopefully the team rises a step higher this weekend since it is the Region IX tournament.”

WNCC enters the tournament with some of the top players in the region. Sophomore setter Soriana Pacheco has already set a school record for most ace serves in a season with 137, bettering the mark set last season by Leticia Kuhn of 136. Nayka Benitez is also nearing the record. The freshman has 131 aces this season so far. But, the freshman libero will not make the trip after being hospitalized late Wednesday evening.

Pacheco, though, leads Region IX in setting at 11.02 set assists a game as well as No. 1 in aces served (1.1 per game). Pacheco also has three of the top six points served matches in the region.

Other players that are making their mark in the region are sophomore Jennifer Eichler, who has a .401 hitting efficiency. Eichler has hammered home 460 kills so far with a 3.56 per game average. Eichler also is among the region’s top 20 in serving with a serving percentage of 93 percent.

Green said, though, the key to winning the tournament is how they pass and serve.

“If NJC or any team is able to out-pass us or out-serve us, it will be difficult to overcome,” he said. “However, with the powerful offense that we have, if we can pass well, we hopefully will be hard to stop.”

That’s it. The Cougars have 103 games out of 105 since winning the Salt Lake tournament Sept. 1. At regionals, the Cougars have yet to drop a match in the past eight tourneys.

While WNCC is the odds on favorite to win the tournament, Green is weary about the other teams since this is the win or go home part of the season.

“We will definitely have to play better in Trinidad’s gym then we did a couple of weeks ago,” he said. “I think we have a good shot at it if we work hard for every points.”