WNCC volleyball opens home campaign with sweep over EWC

                 The No. 1 ranked Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team used a balanced hitting attack and brushed off the butterflies in opening the home portion of their season with a 25-8, 25-21, 25-21 sweep over Eastern Wyoming College in front of a nearly packed Cougar Palace Tuesday night.

                The Cougar, however, didn’t play their best in the second and third sets but a lot of that was the never-say-die attitude the EWC team displayed on the court.

                Megan Johnson, a freshman from Sandy, Utah, said the nervous had a lot to play in the Cougar’s performance on the night.

                “We did OK, but we could have done better,” Johnson, who finished with six kills and three blocks, said. “I think the nerves got the best of all of us, but we pulled it out. There were a lot of nerve and I know I was really nervous at the beginning.”

                The Cougar’s quickness was a deciding factor early on and it left EWC coach Verl Petsch wondering how to stop WNCC’s quick play.

                “We have been a slow starter most of the year and we are fighting to get that taken care of and obviously it showed up some tonight,” he said. “We just seem not to get going like we should in terms of the quickness. I thought early on the Cougars’ quickness was huge. They are an extremely quick team and we didn’t adjust to the quickness early.”

                WNCC steamrolled to the first set victory, jumping out to a 12-6 lead before Alex Rivera went on a 9-point service run that was aided by the net play of Johnson who had two blocks and kill down the middle to lead 22-7. The Cougars never looked back in earning the 25-8 win.

                The second set wasn’t much different from the first early on as WNCC rushed to a 13-7 lead on two kills by Taylor VanderWerff before Fernanda Goncalves served four points to push the score to 18-9. That was when the Lancers shifted gears and made a comeback.

                Trailing 21-9, a missed serve put the service into the Lancer’s Karsen Dingman’s hand. The freshman from Rawlins, Wyo., served three points to bring EWC back to 21-13. After WNCC went up 23-14, another missed serve gave the Lancers some more hope. This time, Chelsea Jones served five straight points to cut the deficit to 23-20.

                Austin Daley hammered home two kills to make the score 24-21, but a Goncalves and VanderWerff block gave the Cougars the victory.

                WNCC started the third set with a bang as VanderWerff started things with a kill and then Debora Araujo served five points for a 6-0 lead. WNCC pushed the lead to 13-3 on an Abbey Wade kill and three service points.

                WNCC led 17-7 at one point before the Lancers fought back. It all started with a kill from Amanda Firth and then Dakota Clough had four points to cut the deficit to 17-12. The Lancers cut the lead to 19-15 kill by Daley. WNCC went up 23-16 before Firth had another kill and Daley served three points to slice the lead to 23-20.

                VanderWerff ended the service run with a kill and then Araujo sent the game-winning kill home for the Cougars ninth victory of the season to no defeats.

                WNCC had a balanced attack, led by Araujo with nine kills, Danika Youngblood with eight, Lais Soares with seven and Johnson and VanderWerff with six each. The Cougars also put up a mean block, led by Soares’ five blocks followed by Johnson, VanderWerff and Jodi Huddleston with three each.

                Johnson said there is plenty of explosiveness on this team.

                “The hitters are very explosive,” she said. “They hitters are smart hitters and all the sophomore hitters are good hitters to help the freshmen out.”

                Also for the Cougars, Goncalves finished the contest with two blocks, 41 set assists and 10 digs. Rivera finished with 17 digs and seven points, Wade finished with three digs, four kills and seven points, Araujo added 11 digs, Dani Grace had nine digs, and Youngblood had four digs.

                Petsch said from what he saw tonight, there is no doubt that the Cougars deserve to be the top-ranked team in the nation.

                “I would say they are much, much quicker than last year’s team,” he said. “They are more athletic than they were last year. I am not sure I saw as much power as they did last year, but I am not sure they were trying to play that way. Right know there is no question they are the best team in the nation. I think they deserve to be at that point after what we saw tonight.”

                The Lancers held their own against the Cougars in the second and third set. EWC was paced by Daley with eight kills followed by Dingman with four. Clough finished with 17 digs, while Alanna Freel had five blocks and Abby Welniak had four blocks. Kassie Woodie finished with eight set assists and Shelby Brewer had five.

                EWC, 6-5, will have a tough week as they host Casper College on Thursday and No. 3 Western Wyoming Community College on Friday. Petsch said they can use this game to get ready for these two important Wyoming Conference contests.

                “We know tomorrow [Wednesday] we have to work on some of that quickness and some other things that showed up tonight,” he said. “Both the teams that are coming up are nationally ranked. We have played 10 matches before tonight, but we haven’t played that kind of quickness that we saw tonight and that will be a benefit for us.”

                The Cougars, 9-0, will be off until next Tuesday when they travel to Casper College for a 7 p.m. contest. Johnson said she is not surprised they are undefeated with the talent they can put on the court.

                “I am not surprised that we are 9-0 but as freshmen we have big shoes to fill. We have to work really hard to play to last year’s accomplishments,” she said. “We are going to practice really hard during the break, and get ready for our next game, the next tournament.”