WEST PLAINS, Mo. – Western Nebraska Community College’s Jodi Huddleston pounded home 10 kills and Tasha Meyer had 17 service points as the No. 2 Cougars swept past Western Texas Community College 25-16, 25-14, 25-4 to advance to the quarterfinal round of the NJCAA national tournament in West Plains, Mo.
The Cougars will face the College of Central Florida at 4:30 p.m. (MST). Central Florida swept past North Idaho College in three hard-fought games 26-24, 28-26, 25-12. The winner of the evening contest will move into the semifinals and play either Iowa Western or Western Wyoming, who were both winners in the first matches of the tournament. Western Wyoming defeated Barton Community College 25-13, 25-21, 25-19, while Iowa Western got by Temple College 25-20, 25-22, 25-17. The semifinals are slated for Friday evening.
WNCC, however lead 99 percent of the time in the Cougars’ opening match and completely dominated in the third set behind an 11-point service run by Meyer. That service run also saw fine frontline play from Huddleston and Abbey Wade as each player pounded home two kills in the stretch. Wade then finished off the match with three-straight service points, including Scottsbluff graduate Huddleston pounding home her ninth and 10th kill of the match.
Freshman libero Alex Rivera said this team played well, especially in the third set.
“I thought we played good. We have been working on moving on from our mistakes and today I think we accomplished that goal,” she said. “In that third set, we showed our confidence since we stepped on the floor in the warm-up. I think the key to success is to trust in your talents. We have been working hard in practice for like four months and now we are getting to what we have been looking for.”
WNCC opened the match on a role, zooming to a 10-2 lead behind five service points from Debora Araujo and three from Meyer. Western Texas cut the lead to 15-10 before WNCC pushed the lead back to 20-12 on a Aruajo kill and service point before Goncalves served out the first game win.
The second game saw WNCC jump out to a 6-3 lead before Western Texas fought back to take their first lead of the match at 7-6 behind three service points from Gabriella Feliciano. With the score tied at 8-8, Huddleston pounded home a kill and then Rivera served up six points for a 15-8 lead. WNCC pushed the lead to 19-10 before Huddleston finished off game two with another one of her hammering kills.
WNCC finished with 42 kills in the match as eight different Cougars managed at least two kills. Huddleston paced the team with 10, followed by Araujo with nine, Danika Youngblood with eight, Lias Soares with six and Wade with three.
Also for the Cougars, Huddleston finished with two kills; Fernanda Goncalves had 31 set assists and 12 digs; Araujo had two aces and seven digs; Youngblood, Rivera, and Araujo each had seven digs; Dani Grace had five digs, and Meyer had four digs.
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