After weeks of intense preseason practices, the Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team is more than ready to kick off its regular season.
The defending national champions, who are ranked No. 1 entering the season for the first time in school history, should get plenty of early tests this weekend when the Cougars compete in the Iowa Western Invite in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
The Cougars open play Friday when they face Hillsborough Community College and Missouri State-West Plains followed by Iowa Lake Community College and Jefferson College on Saturday. WNCC coach Giovana Melo said this team is ready to go.
“The team is ready to see where we stand,” Melo said. “We have been practicing for a while know and we had a couple scrimmages and they are just ready to see how they do and see what they can put together in this tournament. For me, I have been waiting to get this season going for awhile. You get to the point in the season where and you get excited to see what they are able to put together and what they are able to do on the court.”
There is now denying that this team has the talent, but it is raw talent. The Cougars have five sophomores on the team, three of which were starters a year ago in 5-foot-10 Debora Araujo, Lais Soares, 5-10 middle/rightside hitter, and Fernanda Goncalves, 5-9 setter. Also returning from last year is Scottsbluff’s Jodi Huddleston, a 6-0 middlehitter. The other sophomore is Dani Grace, a 5-11 transfer from Lamar Community College.
The other eight players on the team are all newcomers and they are making quite an impression so far in practices. Melo said it is important that the entire team improves each time they step onto the court.
“We are trying to take it one step at a time,” she said. “We are very young and I think those girls still have a lot to learn. We have to go slow with them and this weekend will be good for them to see what we have in our league and what we have to face every tournament that we go to. I think it is pretty important for them to take one step at a time and gain experience as we go.”
The freshmen include Danika Youngblood (5-9, South Jordan, Utah); Alyssa Olson (5-9, Longmont, Colo.); Alex Rivera (5-6, Vega Baja, Puerto Rico); Alyssa Ostrander (6-0, Gordon); Abbey Wade (5-11, Roseville, Calif.); Tasha Meyer (Honolulu, Hawaii); Taylor VanderWerff (6-1, New Orleans, La.); and Megan Johnson (5-11, Sandy, Utah).
Melo said this talented freshmen group is making strides each day in practice.
“All the freshmen are improving,” she said. “Obviously the sophomores know where we are at and they have some little things they have to improve, but I think the freshmen have been getting better every day.”
The biggest thing the players have to get used to is playing with a target on their back. That target was made even bigger after the Cougars were picked as the preseason No. 1 team. It is also the first time WNCC has been preseason ranked No. 1. They have, however, been number one during different parts of previous seasons.
“You definitely know that being number one that everybody comes after you with a target on your back,” Melo said. “ But, I don’t think that is really important to me, it is important of how the team is playing and how much we are getting better every day. The ranking is good but it really doesn’t matter before the season.”
The team has showed some spurts of greatness during their scrimmages last week, facing Nebraska-Kearney and Bellevue College,
“We saw some really good things, we saw some bad things, and we saw some OK things,” Melo said. “I am now looking toward the team consistency and getting them to play as consistent as we go.”
The Cougars will not have an easy schedule by any means of the imagination. After this weekend, the Cougars will compete in the Salt Lake Invite where they will play Salt Lake Community College, College of Southern Idaho, College of Eastern Utah, and Northwest College. They will also host a very tough Wyo-Braska tournament this year. The Cougars are slated to face No. 3-ranked Western Wyoming Community College, Barton Community College, Air Force Prep and Laramie County Community College.
“It seems like it will be a pretty tough schedule,” Melo said. “We are playing some pretty good teams and that is good for us right away, and we are starting with two great teams right away [at Iowa Western]. It will take a lot more than what we have been doing to win another national title. We are a far ways from that.”
The Cougars will open the home season on Tuesday, Sept. 6 against Eastern Wyoming College and will finish the season by hosting the Region IX tournament the first weekend in November.
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