WNCC goes 4-0 at Pizza Hut Classic

Western Nebraska Community College’s Soriana Pacheco put on a serving clinic Saturday at the Pizza Hut Invite in Sterling, Colo.

The 5-foot-10 sophomore setter popped in 29 points and 10 aces in the Cougars two wins over Colby Community College and Garden City Community College to finish the tournament as the only unbeaten team.

“She had incredible matches to today. You can’t say enough about her. She runs our offense, is a second-year player and makes our team go,” WNCC coach Chris Green said. “She is an incredible player. She really played well. She was all over the place making great digs. She has that nice jump serve with a lot of aces. And when she doesn’t serve an ace, many times the pass doesn’t go to their setter so we get a free ball. She really means a lot of points for us. Her setting is incredible, but there is a lot of other parts of her game that is also good.”

Pacheco helped lead the Cougar women to two more wins on the season in impressive style. After opening the tournament Friday with straight-game wins over Seward County Community College and Casper on Friday, WNCC won both matches Saturday in straight games. The Cougars defeated Colby 30-22, 30-20, 30-5 and walked through Garden City 30-22, 30-14, 30-7 to improve to 24-1 on the season.

“Against Garden City we played pretty well throughout the match. We had very few serving errors and 18 aces,” Green said. “We served incredibly well and our passing was OK to run our offense. I think we had a pretty good match to finish the tournament.”

Pacheco, though, wasn’t the only player to stand out on the day. Many players put up eye-popping numbers, which Green said is a testament of how hard they had to fight to win points.

“The stats show that the matches weren’t that easy,” Green said. “There were some long rallies and we had to work hard to get a win. It is good to play teams like this where we have to work hard to get those points. “

Pacheco finished with a triple-double against Garden City. She finished with 14 digs, 19 points, 34 set assists, eight aces and five kills. Nayka Benitez also stepped up finishing with 17 digs, three aces and six points.

Also for the Cougars, Jennifer Eichler had 12 kills and five blocks; Kendra Schauermann had seven digs, and eight points; Fatima Balza had four digs, three kills, four blocks and six points; Daphine da Silva had four digs, three kills, five points and two aces; Stacie Meisner had four aces and 12 points; Chelsea Lyles with seven kills; and Aida Bauza with 14 kills.

In fact, the way the team played against Garden City made Green extremely pleased. After fighting to a 30-22 win in the first game, the Cougars took control early in the second game as Pacheco served up five straight points. Da Silva pushed the lead to 17-4 with four points and two aces and the Cougars never looked back.

In fact, WNCC made quick work of Garden City in the third game, going through just eight rotations in collecting the win. Pacheco started things with four points an dthen Meisner pitched in six points for a 14-3 lead.

WNCC pushed the lead to 25-6 on five Pacheco serves before Schauermannn finiwshed of the Broncbusters with four service points.

The Cougars were just as impressive in the Colby match, where Benitez finished with a double-double recording 12 digs and 14 points. She also collected eight aces. Eichler also had another good match finishing with 12 kills and six points, followed by Pacheco with six kills, 10 points and 27 set assists; da Silva with six points and five digs; Pacheco with 27 set assists, six kills and 10 points; Bauza with eight kills; Meisner with eight kills and five points; Schauermann with six points and eight digs; and Balza with four kills and five blocks.

Green said his team needed that depth against a good Colby squad.

“Colby played very well against us and that happens a lot. When you are ranked high, teams come out and play well. Colby gave us their best shot in the first two games and then I think they ran out of gas,” he said. “They played very well against us. We had some serving and pass errors in the first two games. We didn’t run our offense liked we wanted to and we struggled a little bit in those two games. In the third game we served extremely well and had a lot of aces and we passed a little better, too. We kind of took Colby out of the game and they made their errors that they weren’t making in the first two games.”

WNCC will return to action next week when they host the Wyo-Braska Shootout Thursday-Saturday. Green said they will be pushed again.

“We will see some of these same teams again. We will play Seward and Casper this next weekend in our home tournament,” he said. “There will be some really good teams here. We will have our work cut out for us. There are some good teams coming in. They will force us to work hard and hopefully we will continue to get better.”

Cougar women's soccer team defeats Northern Oklahoma on Friday

The Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team got bak on the winning track with a spirited win over Northern Oklahoma Friday 4-3 to open the Butler County tournament.

The Cougars, losers of their last two contests against Barton County and Laramie County, received a balanced offensive output in getting the win.

Northern Oklahoma, though, scored first in the 10th minute. WNCC wasted little time in tying the match. Bre Perkes returned to her scoring ways by opening the scoring in the 15th minute with a goal. LeeAnna Paxton and Amanda Arrant assisted on the goal.

The Cougar women continued to find the back of the net. This time Perkes found Paxton for the second goal at the 31st. WNCC added another goal at the 43rd minutes on a goal by Alicia Ropkin off an assist by Andrea Ardito to take a 3-2 lead into halftime.

WNCC added an insurance goal in the 50th minutes of the second half. Perkes picked up her second assist on the night as she found Ashley Quintana for the goal.

The Cougars, 4-2-1, will return to action today a 1 p.m. when they take on No. 10-ranked Butler County Community College. Butler earned a 2-1 win over Cisco Junior College in the earlier match. Butler and Northern Oklahoma played earlier in the season and tied 1-1.

Cougars are No. 1 in the nation!!!!!!!

The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball players have even more reason to be smiling these days.

After running out to a 20-1 record so far this season, the team as achieved another honor – being ranked No. in the county. And, after the polls were released Wednesday morning, the WNCC coaches and players were filled with excitement.

The Cougars, who have won three straight tournaments, including defeating previously No. 1 and the defending NJCAA national champions Iowa Western Community College, moved up five spots to the top spot with 80 points. Salt Lake Community College, who is the only team to defeat WNCC, is number two followed by Iowa Western, Frank Phillips College and Blinn College.

WNCC coach Chris Green, who is in his ninth year of head coach, said the competition among the top teams is fierce.

“Salt Lake and Iowa Western are definitely very talented teams and we had to play at our best to beat them,” he said. “The good thing is that we have already seen them and hopefully when and if we see either of those teams again, we will be even more prepared.”

The Cougars, though, are used to the national attention. Last season WNCC was No. 1 for eight weeks before finishing runner-up at the national tournament to Iowa Western and finishing the year at 56-2.

“The players have been there before,” WNCC coach Chris Green said. “Last year we were ranked number one for a majority of the season, but what would have made for a better ending would be finishing at number one.”

This year’s team, which boasts plenty of depth, has provided plenty of punch this season. The team swept through the South Sub-region tournament winning all five matches without dropping a game. Then, the Cougars won their second straight Salt Lake Invite by defeating No. 2 ranked Salt Lake Community College in the championship.

Last weekend, the Cougars won the Central Invite in another stellar fashion. WNCC defeated Iowa Western 30-28, 30-24 for the title, which included going through the Invite without dropping a game.

“We have played very well in matches where we have to rise to the occasion,” Green said. “That is a good sign, but we would definitely like to be more consistent against all teams.”

In fact, the Cougars have now won 22 straight games (last time they lost a game was to Salt Lake in the title match of the Salt Lake Invite), have only dropped only four games all season.

“We have always had a target on our backs being the Region IX champs, and being number one may make that target larger but the girls, especially the sophomores, are used to it,” Green said. “Hopefully the team sees it as an honor, and really steps up and tries to perform at a high level each time we step on the court against competition.”

The competition will continue to be fierce for the Cougars. This weekend they will compete in the Pizza Hut Classic in Sterling, Colo. The team will face Seward County Community College and Casper College on Friday, who both received honorable mention status in this week’s polls. Then, on Saturday, the Cougars will take on Colby Community College and Garden City Community College of which Green said both teams feature plenty of international players.

“We have played very well in matches where we have to rise to the occasion,” Green said. “That is a good sign, but we would definitely like to be more consistent against all teams.”

Green is hoping his team continues to build off of this achievement and get the ultimate goal – a national championship.

“Rankings at this time of the year is not as important,” he said, “as obviously as where we are at the end.”

Cougar men, women fall to Laramie County in soccer on Wednesday

The Western Nebraska Community College soccer teams might have lost the battle on the scoreboard to Laramie County Community College Wednesday evening, but Cougar head coach Todd Rasnic saw plenty of positives that made him pleased.

The Cougar men lost a heartbreaking 2-1 overtime contest to the Golden Eagles. The Cougar women, on the other hand, fell 6-2 despite scoring the most goals on the No. 5 team in the country.

“I wasn’t disappointed today. We did some good things,” Rasnic said. “The LCCC women have only been scored upon in one other game. They only had two goals scored on them and it was in a game they lost. Actually, there were a lot of positive things that went on and I am looking forward to moving forward and trying to pick up some victories in the future.”

The Laramie County women came into the contest steamrolling their competition. And, early on, it looked as if they would do the same to the Cougars jumping out to a 2-0 halftime lead. It didn’t take them long to score the opening goal as Heather Myers scored off a pass from Chelsea Eades at the 36 minute mark.

The Golden Eagles added a second goal with nine minutes to play in the half on a Megan Erikson shot from an assist from Megan Koopman. LCCC outshot the Cougars 7-3 in the first half.

The second half was a different story as the Cougar women came out with a different mentality. Early on, the Cougar women had four good shots on goal, including two from Bre Perkes that just missed.

LCCC then got its offense uncorked over a six-minute period rattling off three goals to take a 5-0 lead. Kim Yaccuta scored the first goal with 29:09 left in the half. Three minutes later, Yaccuta fed Koopman with a pass for a 4-0 lead. Koopman added a second goal with 23:35 to play.

WNCC kept battling and made a game of it, avoiding the shutout. The Cougars netted their first goal with 19:45 to play as Perkes delivered a pass to LeAnna Paxton for the score. Three minutes later, WNCC scored again. This time Ashley Quintana threw the ball in to Perkes, who delivered the ball into the back of the net.

Neither team scored again until with under a minute to play when Eades scored the final goal for LCCC.

LCCC finished with 15 shots on goal and eight corner kicks, while the Cougar women had six shots on goal and three corner kicks. WNCC goalkeeper Terri Huntington had nine saves in net.

Rasnic said the difference in the women’s contest was depth. WNCC played without several players who are nursing injuries.

“He [LCCC coach] has a deep bench with seven or eight players, and right now with the plague of injuries that we have, we are sitting here looking at three players on the bench,” Rasnic said. “The depth of a program makes a big difference. As soon as we get some ladies healthy, the more chance we will have in being successful down the road.”

The Cougar men also played well and had a number of opportunities to win the game. They too, though, were playing without two key starters – Eloy Matos and Steven Estrada who are getting ready to play with their Puerto Rican national team against Cuba for a berth in the China Olympics.

“We are certainly hurting without our starting center back and one of our forwards, but they will be back on Sunday when we host the University of Great Falls,” Rasnic said. “Hopefully, we will have more opportunities to put a better game on the field. You will see that happen and see the win/loss ration change a little bit.”

The Cougars, though, just missed winning the game. WNCC wasted little time to score netting their first goal 12 minutes into the match on a Lazzaro Torres goal off an assist from Morgan Wall.

LCCC came back and knotted the score with 22 minutes left in the half on a goal by Jose Arenas for the 1-1 halftime tie. The score stayed that way through the second period despite the Cougars having a number of opportunities to put in a goal, including a missed shot just 30 seconds into the half.

In the overtime period, WNCC had the first prime scoring opportunity but a pass just missed a open Cougar player. Thirty seconds later, the Golden Eagles ended the match on a 35-yard boot from Conrrado Deniz.

WNCC had just five shots on goal and zero corner kicks, compared to nine shots on goal for Laramie County and six corner kicks. WNCC goal keeper Cesar Bazana recorded seven saves for the Cougars.

“We lost a couple games in the last week but you know what, we are playing right there with all of our competition,” Rasnic said. “Things will change and we have a lot of season left for both teams. We had some key players out today [on both teams] and what you will see is things will solidify a little bit more when we get those players back.”

The women’s team will have little time to heal from the Region IX loss as they hit the road for two matches this weekend in the Butler County Community College tournament Friday and Saturday. The men’s team will be back in action Sunday when they host the University of Great Falls at noon at the Landers Soccer Complex.

WNCC and Casper College volleyball scores

WNCC college newspaper member Randy Henry is in Casper College reporting back with results and photos. And, it was a good night for WNCC volleyball as they moved to 20-1 on the season with a three-game sweep of Casper College. The scores were:

First game -- WNCC won 30-28
Second game -- WNCC won 30-17
Third game -- WNCC won 30-24

As for statistics for the WNCC match, several players had good games. But, WNCC coach Chris Green was quite to mention that it wasn't the best of night for his team as far as hitting and blocking. "We didn't hit the ball very well at all," he said. "We had the most hitting errors we have ever had."

Green wasn't happy with the blocking as well. The team had a combined three blocks as Shawntell Jones and Aida Bauza each had two blocks (one solo and one assist each).

Still, there were some highlights. Nayka Benitez finished with 19 digs, 14 points and six aces. Bauza also had 12 kills, while Jennifer Eichler had 10 kills. Soriana Pacheco finished with 35 set assists.

WNCC will next be in action this weekend at the Pizza Hut Invite in Sterling, Colo., in which they will face some tough competition. Friday's action will have the Cougars facing Seward County Community College at 5 p.m. and then Casper College at 8 p.m. Saturday's action will have WNCC facing Colby Community College at 9 a.m. and Garden City at 12:30 p.m. Green said that Colby and Garden City have solid teams with plenty of international athletes.

Bonus coverage of the Gering and Scottsbluff volleyball game. These scores are courtesy of KNEB Radio, while I am staying at the college working on the Region IX volleyball stats. And, it just went final at 9:35 p.m. and the Bulldogs defeated the Bearcats in four games. Here are the scores.

First Game -- Gering won 25-21
Second Game -- Gering won 25-18
Third Game -- Scottsbluff won 25-21
Fourth Game -- Gering won 25-17

These photos of the Cougar women are of the first game. Photos are courtesy of Randy Henry, sports editor of the WNCC college newspaper The Spectator. Please give credit to him if you use them. Send a note to him at dahasher@gmail.com for going down to Casper and sending the photos back.

These are second game action photos from Randy Henry:

WNCC hosts Laramie County in soccer doubleheader Wednesday

The Western Nebraska Community College men’s and women’s soccer teams will be looking to get back on the winning track after suffering defeats on Saturday. And, they will have a challenge when they host Laramie County Community College Wednesday in the men’s, women’s doubleheader.

The men’s match will kick off at 3 p.m. at the Lander’s Soccer Complex, with the women’s contest to follow at 5 p.m.

The Cougar and Golden Eagle men enter the contest with similar records. WNCC is 2-4 on the season after falling to Barton County Community College 4-2 on Saturday. The Golden Eagle men enter play with a 3-4-1 mark falling to Barton County 2-1 on Sunday.

Both women’s teams also feature the same kind of record. The Cougar women enter with a 3-1-1 mark, but are smarting a little after being shutout by a Barton County team on Saturday 2-0. The opposite can be said for the LCCC women. The Golden Eagle women have a 4-1-1 mark and defeated Barton County 5-0 on Sunday.

After Wednesday’s contests, the women will hit the road for two contests at the Butler County Community College tournament Friday and Saturday. The Cougar men will return to action Sunday when they host the University of Great Falls at the Lander’s Soccer Complex.

WNCC softball picks up two wins in final day of Fall Classic; tean will head to North Platte this week

The Western Nebraska Community College and Chadron State College softball teams finished the final day of the WNCC Fall Classic with two wins. Chadron State earned two shutouts downing Weber State 8-0 before blanking McCook Community College 6-0.

The WNCC women rebounded from two opening tournament losses to Weber State on Friday and Chadron State Saturday morning, to finish out the tournament with three wins. The Cougars started the win streak with a 14-4 win Saturday night and then claimed two wins on Sunday.

The Cougars started Sunday with a 10-1 win over the Air Force Academy and then blanked the University of Wyoming 11-0. Freshman outfielder Mandy Pounds said they played well despite mixing the freshmen and sophomores together..

“The played very well for this being our very first tournament together. Half of our team has never played together before and by the way we played this weekend you would never known,” the freshman outfielder from Colorado Springs said. “The positives of this weekend were we able to see the potential of the team and learn each others way of playing.”

The Cougars will next be in action this weekend when they head to a tournament in North Platte when they play three games on Saturday before bracket play on Sunday. Pounds said this weekend’s play should help when they play UNK, Barton County and Garden City Community College on Saturday.

“The outlook on next weekend’s game are to go in knowing we’re the best team, giving 110 percent and going the extra one degree,” she said. “We need to continue to improve on learning each other’s tendencies and styles while playing, such as who needs to be picked up when they are down.”

The Cougar women definitely received the opportunity of how to play together starting with Saturday night’s win against McCook. The Cougars erupted for 10 runs in the fourth inning to open up a close game. In that fourth inning, the Cougars scored 10 runs on 10 hits, including two hits each by freshmen Lauryn Smith, who had two run-scoring singles, and Kayli Allen, who had a two RBI single and a run-scoring double to open the inning.

WNCC continued the run support on Sunday by scoring 21 runs in two games. In the first game, the 10 runs were all scored from the bottom of the order. After being blanked in the first inning against Air Force, the Cougars put up four runs in the second inning. Kelsi Baldwin led things off by drawing a walk followed by an Alec Voci bunt single. Allen then scored a run by reaching base on an error. Pounds, Smith and Jessie McNabb each had RBIs in the second inning.

WNCC plated another three runs in the fourth inning. Voci led off with a double and she scored on a Pounds hit. Allen and Pounds scored the other two runs for the Cougars in the inning for a 7-0 lead.

WNCC added another three runs in the next inning. Voci and Kayla Hall scored on a Smith double to leftfield. Smith scored the final run on a Amanda Torimaru base hit for the 10-1 win.

Jessica Pexton picked up the win in the circle, going three innings andn allowing one run and two hits. Natasha Dypchey pitched the final two innings allowing one hit and two walks.

Sunday's game two was all WNCC as the Cougars pounded out 10 hits in scoring 11 runs in just four innings. WNCC got on the scoreboard first with a 6-run first inning. Smith, Pounds and Voci led off with base hits. Voci's was a run-scoring double to score the first run of the game. After that, the Cougars utilized two Wyoming errors and singles by Lauren Mills and Torimaru for the 6-0 lead.

WNCC added another four runs in the third inning. Torimaru and Allen each delivered singles, while Smith had a 2-run double.

Torimaru led the team with a 3-for-3 game, including two RBIs and two runs scored. Also collecting multiple hits were Smith going 2-for-3 with a double, and Allen going 2-for-3 with two singles and two RBIs.

Ashley Patton and Kelsey Garner combined on the shutout. Patton got the win pitching three strong iinnings and striking out four and walking one. Garner finished off the tournament pitching two innings, striking out three.

Chadron State was the only team to finish the tournament unbeaten with a dominating performance on Sunday. The Eagles opened the tournament with an 8-0 win over Weber State, a team that won the National Club tournament last year. In the game, Casey Williams was sizzling in the circle, allowing three hits and striking out eight. Chadron scored one run in the first inning and exploded for seven runs in the fifth for the win.

In the Eagles' game against McCook, Chadron State received a dazzling pitching performance from Cassie Humphrey. The Eagles just scrapped across runs throughout the contest. But, while the Eagle bats and pitchers were on, the defense was also stellar. In the sixth inning, McCook made a run to avoid the shutout. With one out and runners at second and third, leftfielder Sasha Catches made a diving catch and the McCook runners passed each other on their track back to the bases.

WNCC wins Columbus tourney, downs No. 1-ranked Iowa Western for championship

Another tournament championship for the Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team and this one is even sweeter after winning the Central Invite in Columbus, Neb..

The Cougars earned the title with four victories on Saturday, including a huge sweep of No. 1 ranked and defending national champions Iowa Western Community College 30-28, 30-24. In fact, the Cougars never dropped a game in the game in seven matches in the tournament.

WNCC won all four of their pool play matches, claiming wins Friday over Cloud County, Central Community College-Columbus, and Iowa Central, and then wrapping up pool play Saturday by disposing of Butler County Community College 30-16, 30-16.

The Cougars then opened bracket play with a 30-6, 30-16 win over Laramie County Community College followed by a 30-18, 30-11 win over Northeastern Junior College in the semi-finals to set up a rematch of last year's national championship match.

In the contest against Laramie County, Nayka Benitez finished with 13 digs, Fatima Balza had nine kills and five blocks, Chelsea Lyles had 8 kills and two blocks, Daphine da Silva had 17 points, and Soriana Pacheco had 22 set assists and four kills.

The Cougars, now 19-1 will return to action Tuesday when they travel to Casper College before competing in their fourth tournament on Friday and Saturday in Sterling, Colo.

Second day of WNCC Fall Classic Softball tournament

The second day of the WNCC Fall Classic softball tournament started with a bang Saturday with a down-to-the-wire game between WNCC and Chadron State College.

The Eagle women used a first-inning, 3-run home run from Kristy Long to defeat the Cougars 3-2. WNCC, though, kept fighting to tie the game but had a fifth-inning rally fell short before the time-limit ran out. WNCC rebounded in the nightcap to earn a 14-4 win over McCook.

Against Chadron, the Eagle's Britt McEndaffer and Cassie Humphrey started the rally by getting on base via a single and a fielding error. Then Long belted a pitch over the centerfield fence for the 3-0 lead.

WNCC came right back in the first inning to score a run as well. Lauren Mills lead off with a double to leftfield. After stealing third, she scored on a dropped third strike throw to first base.

Both teams then missed out on scoring opportunities the next four innings. Chadron had just two runners reach scoring position the rest of the way as the Cougar defense stepped up. In the second, Blair McEndaffer led off with a single, but was stranded at second.

Then, in the fifth, Melissa Lohr reached base on a error, but ended up being stranded at third base.

WNCC had plenty more times to score the tying or go-ahead runs. It wasn’t until the fifth that the Cougars had the biggest threat to tie the game. With one out, Kayli Allen drew a walk. Allen was then lifted for pinchrunner Kayla Hall. With two outs, Jessie McNabb singled to put runners on the corner.

Amanda Torimaru then singled in WNCC’s second run with a shot to rightfield, but both McNabb and Torimaru were stranded in scoring position to end the game.

Both pitchers threw well. CSC’s Casey Williams picked up the win allowing four hits, while striking out seven in five innings of work. WNCC’s Kelsey Garner also pitched well despite giving up the first-inning three runs. Garner, the freshman from Regina, Saskatchewan, allowed four hits, while striking out five Eagle batters.

In the win against McCook, WNCC scored one run in the first as Lauryn Smith launched a triple and came around to score. WNCC added three more runs in the third inning on a double by Kayli Allen and singles by Smith, McNabb and Torimaru.

WNCC put the game away in the fourth when they notched 10 runs on 11 hits. Allie Griffin started the run-scoring spree with a single. From there several players got base hits. Allen and Lauren Bourdon each had two hits in the inning. Allen had a double and a single, while Bourdon had two singles. Also collecting big hits was Jessica Pexton with a two-out run-scoring, pinch-hit double.

Action in WNCC Fall Classic continues today at Volunteer Field with six games. Chadron State will play Weber State at 8 a.m. and then McCook Community College at 11:30 a.m. WNCC will finish out the Classic with at 3 p.m. against Air Force and then Wyoming at 4:45.

Other scores in the Classic saw Weber State defeat WNCC 3-2 and North Platte 6-1 on Friday. Saturday’s other action saw Chadron State register a 7-5 win over North Platte. Other winners include Weber State beating North Platte and University of Wyoming, McCook Community College beating Wyoming, Air Force over North Platte, Air Force over McCook. and WNCC over McCook 14-4.