STERLING, Colo. -- Oct. 26, 2011 – The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team rebounded with authority on Wednesday against No. 14 Northeastern Junior College less than a week after claiming a five-set match on Friday.
Wednesday's sub-region encounter turned quickly into an all Cougar show as the No. 2 WNCC team went to 35-1 on the season with a convincing 25-15, 25-20, 25-12 win to wrap up the No. 1 seed in the South Region IX tournament that runs Nov. 3-5 in Scottsbluff.
The Cougars success lies with coming out with confidence and focus. Eash member of the team had tap on their wrist with the word “confidence” written on it. It worked, said sophomore Lais Soares, who brought the Cougars back from a 13-4 deficit in the second game with two kills and seven straight points.
“We came out so desperate today. We know the last match when we played them was hard for us so we came out different today. We know we can beat them 3-0,” the sophomore said. “Confidence was the key. We need that to keep the team together and work hard all games. The confidence showed.”
That confidence definitely showed in the second game as NJC was all over the Cougars 9-1 behind an eight point service run by Jena Monheiser. NJC kept playing strong, running to a 13-4 lead. That was when the Cougars hitting attack woke up behind clutch kills from Jodi Huddleston, Debora Araujo, Megan Johnson, along with two huge kills by Soares to cut the lead to 17-13.
Soares then went on her seven-point service run to put the Cougars up 21-18 with front row help from Huddleston and Danika Youngblood. The Cougars comeback deflated the Plainswomen’s momentum as Youngblood had two service points and then Huddleston finished off the second set with a kill.
Soares said the key for the second-set comeback was refocusing and having confidence.
“What coach said to us during a timeout was that we lost the focus,” Soares said. “She told us to bring back the focus and have confidence and trust each other and we can come pick it up and win a set.”
The way they came back in the second set wasn’t needed in the first and third sets as the second-ranked Cougars dominated play.
In the first set, Fernanda Goncalves served five points to open the game at 6-1 and then the Cougars pushed the lead to 13-4. NJC cut the deficit to 15-7, but that was it as Youngblood finished with four kills in the opening set, including the set winner.
The third set was just as dominating, jumping out to a 5-1 lead before NJC sliced the lead to 8-6. Alex Rivera chanced all that with four service points and a 14-7 lead. WNCC kept excelling on all cylinders as Soares served an ace off the head of a NJC player before Youngblood powered down the winning kill.
Youngblood led the way with 14 kills and six digs, while Araujo pounded home eight kills, three aces, and 13 digs.
Also for the Cougars, Johnson had four kills and three blocks; Huddleston had four kills and four blocks; Goncalves had 34 set assists, two kills, two blocks, and 12 digs; Soares had three kills, two blocks, two aces and seven digs; Rivera ahd 10 digs; Dani Grace had seven digs; and Tasha Meyer had two digs.
WNCC, 35-1, will now be off until next week for the regional tournament. The Cougars first tournament game will be Friday morning at 11 a.m. against the winner of a match on Nov. 3.
Complete pairings for the regional tournament will be announced this weekend.
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