The Western Nebraska Community College sophomore volleyball players made their last time playing on the Cougar Palace floor a memorable one, rolling through the Spring Fever Volleyball Tournament with an unblemished record.
The WNCC sophomore team, finished the tournament with a 5-0 mark, which included sweeping the WNCC freshmen as well as beating Chadron State College and the University of Alaska Anchorage volleyball teams twice.
"For us sophomores, I think overall we played well," WNCC sophomore Ariel Austin said, who verbally committed to attending Alaska Anchorage to play volleyball earlier this year, said. "When we played against the freshman, they played hard and I saw some really good things with them, too. In a way, it makes me sad that this was the last time playing on this court. I do wish I had another year here, but it is time for me to move on."
Austin got to play her last competitive game at Cougar Palace and at the same time play against her new team. She said she saw a hint of what to expect when she heads to Anchorage, Alaska, to play volleyball after this season.
"I had a lot of fun playing them. They are a great team. They came out strong but so did we. We luckily came out with a win," she said. "It was really good to see the players and coaches as well. It was just a fun two games that we played against them"
Wins in the tournament, however, weren't that important as coaches were getting a feel of what to expect from their teams next season. Still, the WNCC sophomores unbeaten run through the tournament was by far not an easy go in their five matches.
The six sophomores (the seventh sophomore Emily Hoehn was playing with the freshman team because they needed a libero) topped Alaska Anchorage 26-28, 25-19, 15-8; beat Chadron State 20-25, 28-26, 15-12; beat Alaska Anchorage 22-25, 25-22, 15-7; beat Chadron State for a second time 25-22, 25-18; and then topped the WNCC freshman team in straight games 25-17, 25-23, and that was after the freshman team had a 9-2 lead in the opening game.
"I just thought we did really well today," Austin said. "After five long matches, we dug down deep and found the energy and played through."
The WNCC freshman finished the tournament with a 3-2 record, while Alaska Anchorage went 3-3 and Chadron State went 0-6.
The freshman opened with a 25-20, 25-21 win over UAA and then dropped CSC 25-17, 25-15. The WNCC freshman team then opened the afternoon session with a comeback 25-20, 26-28, 15-8 win over Chadron State, before dropping their final two matches to the sophomores and Alaska Anchorage24-26, 21-25, 15-11.
Alaska Anchorage topped Chadron State, the other Division II school in the tournament in straight sets. The Seawolves won 25-19, 25-29 in the first match and then won 25-16, 25-13 in the second match.
The tournament was a spring tournament for coaches to gauge where their team is for next season. But, for WNCC coach Giovana Melo and Alaska Anchorage coach Chris Green, it was a friendly rivalry since it was player verses coach since Melo played for Green when he was coach of the Cougar volleyball team back in 2002 and 2003.
"I never thought I would be coaching against the my former head coach and I hate losing to him, so that last game [WNCC freshman against UAA] kind of made me mad. But, obviously we have a lot of respect for each other. i played for him and it is awesome to have him back here and show everyone where he is at and what he is doing. It is awesome that we have a great relationship."
Green, who helped the Cougars to the national championship in 2007 before taking the head coaching position at UAA in 2008, said he enjoys coming back to visit his family and visit the many friends he has in the community.
"Giovana has invited us the last two years and we had a little money in our budget and we decided we would come and play here in Scottsbluff," the legendary WNCC volleyball coach said. "It was good to see the family and friends, and some of the college people I have taught and coached with for nine years."
Green said Melo has known a fine job in keeping up the Cougar tradition.
"Giovana was a great player for us," he said. "i am very happy that she succeeded at Arizona State, got her degree and was able to come here and coach. She is up and coming and she will go far. I am happy that we were a part of bringing her here from Brazil."
The contests between WNCC and Alaska Anchorage were nail biters. Both coaches saw potential in their team, but also saw areas that need work.
"We were without some players and our libero was playing outside hitter. For the team that we brought down, I thought we did well," he said. "Today was the most volleyball we have played in one day, for sure. I was pleased with what we did. At times we were lost and disorganized, but that is what spring volleyball is about. Hopefully this will help us get better for the fall season."
Melo said this spring tournament was good for her team as well.
"Our freshman group still has a lot to learn. We are athletic and a very good team, but we have a couple things we still need to work on," she said. "It shows that we have a good team to compete. This tournament gives us really good competition. In practice we are just competing against each other and it is good to compete against four-year schools because our girls are trying to move on to four-year schools. This way they can see what they would be competing for or competing against. It is very important for us to get that kind of competition and play a lot of volleyball."
