Trinidad State Junior College and Otero Junior College each earned first round wins in the first day of the Region IX South tournament at Western Nebraska Community College’s Cougar Palace Thursday night.
The Trojans got seven kills and six blocks from freshman Kaylee Johnson in sweeping past a scrappy McCook Community College team 25-13, 25-13, 25-23 to advance to the semi-finals against No. 2-seed Northeastern Junior College. That contest will take place Friday at 9 a.m.
The other first round contest saw freshman Ana-Marija Kasljevic and Camille Kovach each pounded home 10 and nine kills respectively to register an emotional sweep over Lamar Community College 25-20, 34-32, 25-22 win. The win moves the Rattlers into a match-up with No. 1 seed Western Nebraska Community College at 11 a.m.
McCook and Lamar drop into the elimination bracket of the double elimination tournament. McCook will face the loser of the WNCC and Otero contest at 3 p.m., while Lamar will face the loser of the Trinidad and NJC contest at 1 p.m. In the opener, Trinidad opened up a tight first set behind strong serving from Molly McHenry with four points with two kills from Rachel Hale, and three points from Sydney Wilson for a 15-6 lead. They went on to win the set on a kill by Johnson.
The second set saw Trinidad State get five points each from Morgan Cahoy and Wilson to win 25-13. The pick run came with the Trojans leading 8-6 when Cahoy served five points for a 14-6 lead. Wilson then served five straight points with two aces to go up 21-8.
The third set was tight as Trinidad raced to a 13-7 lead behind five points from Cahoy. McCook didn’t die. Trailing 20-14, Katherine Kriley had a huge kill and then Ogallala’s Samantha Kramer served six straight points to take the lead at 21-20. Lacey Wesley then added two kills put the Indians up 23-21 before Kylie Cornella served the final three points for the win. The other first-round contest was a barnburner between two rivals. The first game was back and forth as neither team led by more than four points. Otero’s Kovach led the team with five kills in the first set while Jayde Comfort had five points. Comfort had the final point of the set with a block.
The second set was a dogfight as Lamar led 22-20 after two points from Noheani Ader. Otero came back to go up 24-23 on a Kovach kill. After that, both teams enjoyed four set points. The Rattlers finally won the set as Maureen Naqica served the final two points.
The third set saw Lamar hold a 16-14 lead after Yana Mitskeyvich had two points, but Otero’s Kasljevic had a kill and the Naqica had four points to go up 19-16 before winning 25-22.
Kasljevic finished with 10 kills, Kovach had nine kills; Naqica had 14 digs; Comfort had seven kills and 12 digs; Sierra Graham had seven digs; Brittney Long had seven kills and four blocks; Ayla Teuscher had 11 digs; and Kekahuna had three aces.
The tournament will have six matches on Friday beginning at 9 a.m. with the championship slated for 1 p.m. on Saturday.
1 comment:
Good job on the coverage. The video feed is very good. Thanks for the work in putting this all together.
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