The Cougar women, 43-4, snared the championship with a heartpounding five-set win over No. 3 San Jacinto College 28-26, 25-19, 22-25, 15-25, 15-10 win over the Ravens. This was the Cougars second national title in four years.
“This is a dream. Not a lot of people win it and I knew we had the team from the beginning with the biggest hearts. It is just a dream come true,” Ariel Austin, the sophomore who had 13 kills including the two kills that ended the first and second sets in the Cougars favor, said. “I can’t thank my team enough. We are truly a family.
“I cannot even describe how it feels to be number one in the nation. This is unbelievable. I don’t even have the words to describe it. It feels so great. It is a dream come true.”
Fernanda Goncalves, who was named the tournament most valuable player, was still in a lack of words to describe the moment she was feeling, that feeling of “We did it.”
“This means everything to me because I am here for playing volleyball and winning this tournament makes me happy and I am excited,” the freshman setter who finished with 15 digs, 47 set assists and four blocks, said. “I am shaking because of this win. I feel happy right know and a little bit crazy. I was really surprised with the MVP honor.”
WNCC coach Giovana Melo said her team played their hearts out as they won the contest behind a solid defensive performance, including a career best 34 digs from Kuulei Kabalis, who was named to the all-tournament team.
“This is a feeling that I never thought I would feel or experience it,” the third year coach, who captured the tournament coach of the year honors, said. “It is here and it is the best feeling in my life.”
WNCC quickly took a 2-0 lead after fighting hard in those sets for the win. In the first set, both squads battle tooth and nail. San Jacinto took a 21-18 lead before WNCC fought back on a Tania Torres kill and then two Emily Hoehn points to tie things at 21. WNCC then took it’s first lead of the match at 23-22 with a Kathryn Stock serve landed for an ace.
San Jacinto came back and tied things at 24-24 and were facing set point at 26-25 before a Debora Araujo kill tied things up. Goncalves then served an ace and Austin followed with a kill for the set win.
The second set was back and fourth to start. WNCC held a slim 13-12 lead before Kabalis had three straight service points for a 20-13 lead. Llater, Araujo hammered home a kill and then served up an ace for a 23-16 lead. Austin finished off the set with another kill to put the Cougars one set away from the championship.
San Jacinto fought back and captured the third and fourth set to force the deciding fifth set. Both teams traded sideouts for the early going. WNCC finally tied the game at 6-6 on a Goncalves setter dump. Kabalis then served two points on kills from Torres and Araujo for an 8-6 lead. San Jacinto came back to cut the deficit to 10-9, but it was shortlived as a missed serve gave WNCC the ball and then Araujo had an ace serve and another point for a 13-9 lead.
The Ravens came back with a point, but a Torres kill brought the Cougars to 14-10 and then Lais Soares finished off the championship run with a kill.
Melo told the team going in the fifth set to remember last year’s semifinal and refocus. They did.
“I told them, especially the sophomores that experienced something like this last year when we lost in the semifinals, that this win is in our hands and if you don’t want to feel that way again like you did last year,” she said. “I told them to forget about everything that happened and to just go fight for that 15 points. It felt like nothing to us after what we felt through the year and they went out and did it.”
Austin knew they still had this game heading into that fifth set.
“For me it was our game,” she said. “We did not give up. We stayed disciplined and we came out on top. We had the energy and came out in the end.”
Araujo paced the Cougars with 21 kills, 15 digs, four aces and nine points. Also having a good match was Austin with 13 kills and two blocks; Torres with 11 kills and five blocks; and Soares with 11 kills and four blocks.
Also for the Cougars, Kabalis finished with 34 digs and seven points, and Emily Hoehn had 16 digs and six points. Stock finished with 11 digs, eight kills, three blocks and six points.
The Cougars are scheduled to arrive in Scottsbluff with the trophy sometime Monday and Melo said she wants to show everyone the hardware when they get back.
“I can’t wait to get this trophy to Scottsbluff and show everybody,” she said. “I am so excited. I hope everybody is there waiting for us [on Monday].”
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