SALT LAKE CITY, Utah -- The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team stayed unbeaten on the season after finishing the Salt Lake Invite with a 4-0 record.
The top-ranked Cougars won both contests on Saturday by topping the College of Eastern Utah 25-11, 25-17, 25-11, before deposing of No. 5 College of Southern Idaho 26-24, 25-22, 23-25, 25-14. WNCC topped Northwest Wyoming and Salt Lake Community College on Friday to go to 8-0 on the season.
"We played pretty well against Southern Idaho," WNCC coach Giovana Melo said. "We obviously had our ups and down but I think they fought really hard and pulled out the win. We got a little inconsistent at times, but they pulled it out because they played hard."
In the win against the pre-season ranked No. 5 Golden Eagles, the Cougars had five players finish with eight or more kills. Debora Araujo led the way with 12 kills followed by Lais Soares with 10 kills. Megan Johnson finished with nine kills and Jodi Huddleston and Danika Youngblood had eight kills each.
The team also played strong defensively with some plenty of defensive digs and blocking. Alex Rivera led the way from the back line finishing with 28 digs. Youngblood, Dani Grace and Fernanda Goncalves each had 11 digs, while Araujo had nine digs. Huddleston and Araujo each had six blocks, while Goncalves had four blocks, and Johnson and Soares with three blocks.
Goncalves also had 40 set assists and three ace serves and Grace and Johnson had two ace serves.
In the win over Eastern Utah, Abbey Wade led the way with nine kills and six digs. Aruajo, Soares and Johnson each had six kills in the victory. Aruajo also had three blocks and three aces, while Johnson had two aces and Goncalves with two blocks and 32 set assists.
Also for the Cougars, Rivera had 11 digs, followed by Tasha Meyer and Grace with five digs.
Melo was pleased with how the team played in the tournament to finish with a 4-0 mark.
"It is great to play these type of teams in the beginning to see where we are at," she said. "I am very happy of how we have started out. This group has showed that they are starting to play as a team and show they can be a team. They get along really well off the court and that is transferring to on the court."
WNCC, 8-0, will next be in action Tuesday when they host Eastern Wyoming College in its home opener. Action begins at 7 p.m. at Cougar Palace. The contest can also be heard on the radio on Double Q Country at 105.9 as well as video streamed on the Internet at sports.wncc.edu.
"We are excited to play at home and have people come and watch us," Melo said. "They are excited to have our home crowd behind us and show where we are at."
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