WNCC volleyball enters nationals with plenty of motivation

                The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team celebrated just briefly after capturing their 14^th straight Region IX title last Saturday and now they are back to work to prepare for the NJCAA national tournament in West Plains, Mo., Nov. 15-17 with bigger fish to catch, including a national title.

And, as the Cougars prepare for the national tournament, they will be doing so with plenty of motivation after last year’s trip to nationals where they fell short, falling in the semi-finals to a red-hot Western Wyoming Community College team. WWCC went on to lose to Blinn College in the championship.

“This team knows how hard we practiced and played last year and that wasn’t enough,” sophomore libero Alex Rivera said. “I hate to sit down and watch last year’s final because it was two teams [playing] that we know we can beat. This team has learned to be fighters this year because we know that it wasn’t enough last year.”

Rivera said this season they definitely kept fighting in achieving their No. 2 ranking and 37-2 record.

“Our best qualities this year is that we are fighters and we know how to come back and we actually are doing it,” she said. “From the beginning of the season to now, we have just been fighting, fighting like crazy and fighting for everything. We want this real bad.”

The Cougars will enter next weeks’ regional tournament with plenty to play for. WNCC now holds the longest active streak of competing at nationals thanks to Miami Dade College failing to make the tournament this year. Miami Dade has been to the national tournament since 1989, marking an end to a 23-year active string of attending the national tournament.

Miami Dade, during those 23-years, won seven national titles and finished in the top four 17 times. WNCC, during their current active streak of attending nationals, has won two national titles – 2007 and 2010 – and have finished in the top four for the past eight seasons.

The Cougars also enter the national tournament with the longest win streak, having won 31 straight matches. College of Southern Idaho enters nationals with a 25-game streak, followed by Iowa Western Community College at 24 games. San Jacinto, the nation’s No. 1 team, had a 29-game win streak before falling to Tyler Junior College at their regional tournament.

WNCC’s last loss came on Sept. 1 when they lost to North Idaho College at the Salt Lake Classic. Since then, the Cougars have been perfect dropping just six sets. At one time, the Cougars won 45 straight sets. WNCC also had just two five-set contests, beating Salt Lake Community College on Aug. 31 and then topping Miami Dade on Sept. 8.

Rivera said she is proud of her team with what they have accomplished this season. Now, it is time to focus on the next step – the national tournament.

“I am so proud of my team. This is a step closer to what is our ultimate goal, and we are focused,” she said. “We know it [how we are playing] is not enough and we have been working hard. I know our mind is set to working even harder.”

At the regional tournament in McCook over the weekend, the Cougars breezed through the competition, winning all three matches in sweeps, topping Trinidad State Junior College and Northeastern Junior College twice.

Rivera said they played well overall, but has mental lapses which they have to clean up.

“I felt we played good, but we had mistakes that we shouldn’t have made,” she said. “In the second game against NJC, we played good. In the final, it was amazing to feel that emotion and how much passion we were playing with.”

Since head coach Giovana Melo took over in 2008, they have went 15-1 at the Region IX South tournaments, losing to Northeastern Junior College in 2010 – the same year they won the national title. During that same five-year stretch, the Cougars have lost just four sets. Melo has a 46-4 set record at the regional tournament.

What makes this year’s trip to the national tournament is how much this young team has grown through the matches into a team that will battle for national title next week. Rivera said they have grown by leaps and bounds since the Regis University scrimmage that saw the Cougars look lethargic to the championship team.

                “Coming in we had a big group of freshmen coming into the system and they had to get used to it [Melo’s system],” Rivera said. “Now, seeing how we started to now, it is unbelievable. We really worked hard to get better and we really are good. I feel proud of seeing my teammates doing so well.”