Kabalis had a triple double against Marshalltown Community College as the Cougars won in straight sets 25-18, 25-10, 25-9; and then had a double-double in the win against No. 3 MSU-West Plains in helping the WNCC to the 17-25, 25-21, 25-20, 25-17 win.
“We played good at times and also played bad at times,” second year coach Giovana Melo said, “We were very inconstant, but we were able to pull out the wins. I thought we got better as the games got along and we learned a couple of things today.”
In the opener against Marshalltown, Kabalis finished with 17 digs, 11 points and 15 kills. The 5-foot-9 first-team pre-season all-American also had two ace serves.
WNCC also received strong play from a number of other players. Sabina Piegza finished the contest with 24 set assists, Kuulei Kabalis and Emily Hoehn each had seven digs, Katherine Stock had five aces, 11 points and five digs, and Paulina Piegza had six kills.
Against West Plains, Kaleinani Kabalis finished with 13 kills, 10 digs, eight points and two aces. Stock and Sabina Piegza also had double-doubles. Stock had 18 digs, 10 kills and nine points, while Piegza had 10 digs and 32 set assists. Hoehn also finished with eight digs, while Tania Torres had six kills and five points.
Melo was pleased with how her team came back against West Plains after dropping the first set.
“We started out really slow with them and lost the first set and we kind of woke up in the next three sets and won the match,” she said. “I was pretty happy with the way they performed at the end of each match.”
The big spark in that contest was the play of Hoehn from the libero spot, according to Melo.
“I thought Emily came in and brought a completely different attitude to the court,” Melo said. “She had this good attitude and put some fire into the girls and I think that really helped us to pick it up and win the game.”
WNCC continues play today in the tournament with an 8 a.m. contest against No. 6 Iowa Western Community College and then a match up against Division II No. 5 ranked Des Moines Area Community College. Melo said they will need to play better today as they face two tough teams in Iowa Western and Des Moines Area.
“We will have to work really hard [against Iowa Western],” she said. “We had an opportunity to watch them play earlier. They have a really good team and we will see what happens. I think we will have a good match, but it just depends on how we play. We just have to be a little bit more consistent.”
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