The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team will vie for their 13th straight Region IX title when action kicks off Thursday evening at Cougar Palace. The Cougars (35-1), who earned the No. 1 seed in the tournament earned a first-round bye, will open the double-elimination tournament Friday at 11 a.m. Northeastern Junior College (23-8) also earned a first-round bye and the No. 2 seed and will play at 9 a.m. Friday.
First-round action begins Thursday as Trinidad State (18-19) faces McCook Community College (3-34) at 5 p.m. followed by Lamar Community College (8-18) against Otero Junior College (16-16) at 7 p.m. WNCC head coach Giovana Melo said anything can happen in this tournament.
“When you come to the Region IX tournament, it is all up for grabs,” she said. “So we can’t go in and say that we will win it. You have to go in there and play against everybody and give your best because everyone will come in playing has hard as they can. This is the time that matters the most.”
The Cougars picked up their game greatly in their regular season final contest against NJC in a dominating sweep 25-12, 25-20, 25-12. And they accomplished it by instilling confidence into each other. “There was a time where we lost our confidence after going through some losses, they did lose their confidence and focus a little bit,” she said. “But going into NJC and beating them in three did help them build up their confidence and brought it back to where it was before the beginning of the season. It is even getting better this week.”
Melo said the NJC match on Wednesday was one of the best that she as seen this team play.
“They were ready to go and they were ready to execute from the beginning to the end,” she said. “We were also coming back from a close five-set win against them so they were ready to go. Every single player performed well. I was happy with their performance.”
Melo said confidence and focus is the key ingredient in winning any championship.
“It is very important for us to stay focused during the tournament,” Melo said. “The girls have been doing a good job this week in getting focused and as long as we stay focused, we can play well. It is just that sometimes we lose our focus pretty easy and then we try to come back. Sometimes that is hard. If we can stay focused and stay on task, the we can be pretty good.”
WNCC put together one of its best regular seasons by finishing 35-1 and were ranked No. 1 in the nation for all but the final two weeks of the season after the Cougars were upset by Iowa Western Community College on Oct. 19. Since that loss, the Cougars have found that focus that saw them top nationally ranked such as No. 3 Western Wyoming Community College, No. 7 Salt Lake, No. 8 Iowa Western, No. 9 College of Southern Idaho, No. 14 Northeastern Junior College, No. 17 Missouri State-West Plains, and No. 18 Jefferson College.
The Cougars are led by a variety of players as any one of six hitters can come up and lead the team in hitting on any given match. WNCC is led by Debora Araujo, who has 394 kills this season for an average of 3.8 per set. Right behind is freshman Danika Youngblood with 302 kills and a 3.03 per game average. Lais Soares has 231 kills, followed by Jodi Huddleston at 157, Megan Johnson at 154 and Abbey Wade at 97.
Tickets for the Region IX tournament are $6 for adults, $4 for senior citizens, and $3 for students. All the matches can be viewed live on the web at http://www.ihigh.com/bigtimesmalltown.
The winner of the regional tournament earns an automatic berth in the NJCAA national tournament to be played Nov. 17-19 at West Plains, Mo.
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