Oct. 19, 2011 -- The last time the Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team played the regional playoffs in Rock Springs, Wyo., the Cougars walked away with the Region IX title back in 2008.
This year is a different team and different competition, but the same goal as the Cougar women hopes to capture the schools third women’s soccer Region IX championship. Judging by the parity of the league, anything is possible.
WNCC enters the regional playoffs as the No. 3 seed and will face No. 2 Northwest College at noon on Friday. The other first round contest pits No. 1 Laramie County Community College against No. 4 Western Wyoming Community College at 10 a.m.
The winners will face off at 10 a.m. on Saturday for the Region IX championship and the right to advance to the district playoffs in Kansas.
“We will be facing Northwest, who beat us 2-0 and 1-0 this season. We played them a lot tougher in the second game,” WNCC coach Todd Rasnic said. “Northwest has continued to get better as the season went along, but I also think our ladies have gotten better as the season as gone along. So, the game will be a battle on Friday to see who moves on to Saturday in the Region IX final.”
This year’s regional tournament really is anyone’s championship to take. Laramie County enters the tournament with a 12-4-2 record while Northwest is 10-5. The Cougars have played the fewest matches of any of the teams as they enter with a 5-6. Western Wyoming, which finished conference with a 0-6 mark, enters with a 7-12-1 overall mark.
“We just hope that when we go and play these games, we come out and play our best game” Rasnic said. “I thought in the game on Saturday against Western Wyoming, we were a little bit lackluster but maybe that was having a few extra days off between games. However, we have to put our excuses away and just go out and play on Friday because it is all or nothing at that point. We hope we put our best foot forward and let the chips fall where it may.”
WNCC does have a chance to repeat the thrill of victory in much of the same manner that the 2008 team did when they defeated LCCC in Rock Springs, Wyo. Rasnic said this team has the make-up to do some damage in the playoffs.
“When we won it in 2008, that was a different year, different team,” he said. “However, the fact that Northwest beat Laramie County indicates the playing field is leveling out a little bit and that should indicate to us that we have a very good opportunity to go and show that we can compete at that level. Hopefully we go up there and show the teams that we play against that we are a force to be reckoned with.”
WNCC has the potential to put up plenty of goals in a heartbeat. The Cougars sport three of the top 10 point leaders in the conference. Sophomore Kristi Blicharz is fifth with 18 points, including eight goals and two assists. Freshman Bridget Stanton is seventh with 15 points (six goals and three assists) followed by sophomore Ashley Gleason at 10th with 11 points (four goals and three assists).
Those totals, however, could be higher as the Cougars have sputtered in finishing shots this season and Rasnic said that is something that can’t happen this weekend.
“We certainly lacked a little bit of composure in front of the goal this year,” he said. “Some of that is just the breaks in the game that didn’t go our way this year. But there is a certain amount of that which is concentration and focus. We are going to try to improve on what we can and the rest will leave up to getting some of those breaks to go our way during the playoffs.“
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