Saturday, September 19, 2009

WNCC volleyball drops Garden City, Laredo in straight sets; goes to 14-2 on the season

STERLING, Colo. – Kaleinani Kabalis pounded home 34 kills and 21 digs and the Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team swept through the Pizza Hut Invite in Sterling, Colo., with a perfect 4-0 record.

WNCC finished off the tournament with sweeps on Saturday over Garden City Community College 25-18, 25-13, 25-8 and then swept through a talented Laredo (Texas) Community College squad 25-12, 25-23, 25-18.

On Friday, WNCC topped Barton Community College in three sets and then No. 11 Seward County Community College in four sets.

The tournament title pushes the Cougars’ record to 14-2. This weekend’s tourney was also the first competition for the Cougars in over 10 days and WNCC coach Giovani Melo was pleased with how her team played.

“I thought we did an excellent job,” she said. “We did a couple of great things that we have been working on in practice. As the day went one we were playing better.”

The Cougars received excellent team play as everybody contributed in some way. Melo couldn’t be happier with that aspect of the Cougar’s game.

“Everybody played well,” she said. “We played as a team. Everyone on the court did their job and the ones on the bench was very supportive. “

In Saturday’s opener against Garden City, Cami Weimer and Kaleinani Kabalis recorded double-doubles. Kabalis finished with 14 digs, 18 kills, five points and two aces; while Weimer had 14 digs, 16 points and two aces.

Also for the Cougars, Kuulei Kabalis had eight digs; Paulina Piegza had nine kills and a solo block; Ariel Austin had five kills; and Sabina Piegza had 34 set assists, nine points and two aces.

WNCC continued its stellar team play against Laredo Community College, a team that lost to No. 1 Blinn in four sets to open the season, with the straight set win.

Kaleinani Kabalis pounded home 16 kills, while getting seven digs, seven points and two aces. Also for the Cougars, Sabina Piegza had 30 set assists, eight points and an ace; Paulina Piegza had seven kills, 11 points, and two aces; Brooke Blomenkamp had eight kills; Kathryn Stock had five kills, 10 points and two aces; Kuulei Kabalis ahd 13 digs and five digs; and Emily Hoehn had five digs.

Melo said that this weekend’s tournament was definitely good for the squad as they faced some very talented teams and it will help them as they prepare for a busy next seven days.

“I thought it was really good competition,” she said. “It will help us next week. It will be good to be at home and to get the crowd behind us. We are excited for next week’s home tournament.”

The Cougars will next be at Casper on Tuesday before hosting the Wyo-Braska Shootout with Eastern Wyoming Thursday through Saturday. WNCC will open the tournament Thursday at noon against Air Force Prep before facing Sheridan College at 4 p.m. They will then have three matches on Friday against Colby Community College, No. 18 Laramie County Community College and No. 20 Northwest Wyoming. WNCC will finish off the next week’s tournament with a Saturday match-up with Western Wyoming Community College.

No comments: