Fatima Balza earned tournament most valuable honors and the Cougar women ran through the Crystal Inn Salt Lake Invite by winning all seven of their matches in capturing yet another tournament title Saturday in Salt Lake City, Utah.
After winning all four of their matches on Friday against ranked opponents, the Cougars topped No. 6 Salt Lake Community College twice and No. 3 College of Southern Idaho to earn their third consecutive Salt Lake tournament title.
"It means a lot to us to prove that we are better then what people thought of us because of the pre-season poll,” first year WNCC coach Giovana Melo said. “We played very well sometimes and then up and down sometimes. Still, we were able to pull it out. I am really happy with the win, but we still have work to do.”
The Cougars earned the title by stopping the host squad Salt Lake Community College in the championship game 25-18, 25-20, 25-17.
Balza paced the Cougars with 12 kills, eight blocks, eight points and two aces. Kaleinani Kabalis, who was also named to the all-tournament team, finished with eight kills and five digs.
Also for WNCC, Paulina Peigza had nine kills, Naomi Flinders had four blocks and nine digs, Nayka Benitez had three points, two aces and nine digs; Gregner Quinones had 10 points and two aces; and Sabina Peigza had 35 set assists.
The Cougars earned the right to face Salt Lake for the title with an impressive win against No. 3 CSI 21-25, 25-22, 25-19, 25-12.
Melo said the were pushed in the contest, after dropping the first game.
“It was a good match. We came out on the short end in the first game and they kind of destroyed us in the first one,” Melo said. “We came back and pulled together and it was awesome defense. Everybody was saying how good this team was and how good they looked in the tournament. We just pulled it out and played well after the first game and beat them.”
Balza and Kabalis each finished with a double-double in the four-game win against CSI. Balza finished with 16 kills and 14 points, while Kabalis had 18 kills and 10 digs.
Also for the Cougars, Paulina Peigza had 10 kills and eight blocks; Benitez had 14 digs; Quinones finished with 12 digs and eight points; and Sabina Peigza had 46 set assists, five aces and 10 points.
In the first match of the day, a pool play encounter with Salt Lake, the Cougars took down the Bruins in three games 25-22, 21-25, 15-10.
Paulina Peigza led the way with seven kills. Balza chipped in five kills, two aces, five points and four blocks.
Also for the Cougars, Kabalis had six kills, five points and two aces; Sabina Peigza had four kills and 27 set assists; Benitez had 12 digs, four points and two aces; Quinones had six digs; and Brooke Blomekamp had six digs.
Melo said that one of the reasons they accomplished the tournament championship was because of their strong serving.
“When they finally focused and got serious, we started to play well,” she said. “We were able to get it together. We also served really well and we were able to take the other teams out of their system. We were also able to block at the net and stop their players.”
WNCC, 15-0 on the season, and will return to action Tuesday when they travel to Casper College for a 7 p.m. contest.
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