WNCC volleyball sweeps EWC

TORRINGTON, Wyo. – Debora Araujo pounded home 18 kills and the Western Nebraska Community College recorded a sweep over Eastern Wyoming College Tuesday night in Torrington, Wyo., 25-12, 25-17, 25-16.

Araujo, Ariel Austin and Katherine Stock, in fact, combined for 38 kills in lifting the No. 5 Cougars to their seventh win of the season. Three outside hitters had an answer for the Lancer’s mini runs they attempted against the Cougars.

WNCC coach Giovana Melo said while they registered the win, they still have some fine-tuning to do before their next game in a week at home against Iowa Western Community College.

“We played OK at times but I think we still have to work on being more consistent,” she said. “Obviously our serves are everywhere right know and if we can’t serve we can’t play. That is something that I was telling them that we have to get a little bit more consistent with our serves.”

The Cougars had nine missed serves in the match, eight of which coming in the first two sets. Still, the Cougars had too much firepower for the Lancers. EWC coach Verl Petsch said that his team played too tentative.

“I thought we played a little tentative tonight in terms of going for broke, if you wish, in passing and trying not to make mistakes,” he said. “Obviously, against a quality team like the Cougars are, when you are tentative in passing, they are going to execute really well, and they did. That was definitely a disadvantage to us tonight.”

The first set was a back and forth affair at the beginning until WNCC’s Tania Torres served three points to put WNCC up 16-9. After a Austin kill, Emily Hoehn served three more points to put WNCC up 20-10 on their way to a 25-12 win.

The second set was much closer as the Lancers hung with the Cougars. EWC held a 5-3 lead early on a Sammie Perkins kills. Scottsbluff’s McKenzie Westphal brought the Cougars back with some precise serving for a 9-6 lead. It didn’t hold up as the Lancers fought back to take a 14-13 lead on a Ariel Gass service point.

WNCC rebounded as Kuulei Kabalis served four points, including two aces for an 18-14 lead. Perkins stopped the scoring spree momentarily but then Westphal served another two points and Tori Bozzo hammered home the set winner.

Once again the Lancers jumped out on top of WNCC early as Gass had a kill and Austin Dailey had two points for a 3-2 lead. WNCC regrouped with some clutch serving – they only had one missed served n the set – to help push the lead to 16-8. EWC never could get a run going after that and the Cougars went on to win 25-17 for the match.

Petsch said that his team has a tendency to start slow and that is what happened tonight.

“All year long this ball club is one that doesn’t start real well and we have been trying to work on that to get us to get motivated and go hard right away,” he said. “We have played better in the second and third and fourth sets, then the first. It is something that we have to push a little bit harder.”

Melo said that the one area that stands out for this team is their hitting, but they have to learn to change speeds and not always hit full speed.

“We have been having success with our hitting and our kills,” she said. “But, like I said, they have to learn to be a little bit more patient with hitting the ball. We are a team that can play, the only part is that we just want to hit hard every single time and that is not what volleyball is about.”

WNCC was paced by Araujo’s 18 kills and eight digs. Kabalis finished with 20 kills and six points, Stock had 11 kills and five points, Austin had nine kills; Hoehn had four points; Westphal had six points; Fernanda Goncalves with 28 set assists; and Sierra Schmidt with eight assists.

The Lancers were led by Perkins with seven kills; Shelby Brewer and Alexia Welsh with six set assists each; and Dakota Cough with 13 digs.

The Lancers, 7-4, will hit the road for contests this week, beginning with a trip to face Casper College Wednesday before facing Western Wyoming Community College on Friday.

"We have to go to Casper [today], which wasn’t the greatest scheduling, and then we go to Rock Springs on Friday. Both of them are sub-region and conference matches," Petsch said. "We have to excel a lot better than we did tonight. I thought we were a little passive serving the ball. The first two sets we didn’t have a service error and that is great except we are allowing people to pass the ball and run their offense."

For the Cougars, they will have a week to get ready for Iowa Western. Melo said her team is looking to play in front of the home crowd.

"I think we have been waiting to play at home and get our fans in our place and show them what we have," she said. "We are going to work hard over the next week to get better."