WNCC sweeps EWC for 48th win

WNCC set for contest Wednesday against NJC on the road;
Match will be broadcasted by KPNY Radio

The Western Nebraska Community College and Eastern Wyoming College volleyball teams had a tussle in the first game of their volleyball match Tuesday night at the Verl Petsch Activities Center. But, the No. 1 Cougars withstood the Lancers upset bid winning game one 30-26 and then cruised through games two and three behind Jillian Kelly’s 22 service points to win 30-7, 30-16 to improve to 48-1 entering tonight’s 7 o’clock encounter with No. 16 Northeastern Junior College on the road.

The Lancers, 12-27, are off until Monday when they hope to rebound against Laramie County Community College in a key north sub-region contest at Torrington. WNCC freshman Jenny Eichler said the big key for the Cougars between the first and second games was serving.

“Our serving was really big in the second game and our hitting started to pick up,” Eichler said. “Jillian’s serving was huge. We were excited for her and she made a lot of points look easy.”

Early on, EWC stayed with the Cougars, especially in the first game when the Cougars built a lead of eight points on Soriana Pacheco’s ace serve. That was when the tide started to turn for the Lancers. Gipfert, who finished the night with seven points, served up three points to cut the lead to 20-16. Both teams continued their back and fourth play with Tanna Nussbaum sliced the lead to 24-21 on a kill. Moments later, Freitas had two kills to push the lead to 27-23 only to see Jill Lockie hammer home a kill herself.

WNCC’s Eichler followed with a kill followed by a kill by Alex Cook to slice the lead back to 28-25. No team managed a service run as Kendra Schauermann had a kill to put the Cougars to within game point. A missed serve game back to EWC only to see Shawntell Jones hammer home the final point.

Both teams continued their strong play in the second play. EWC only trailed 4-3 on a Natalie Villwock kill, but things changed quickly with the lead greowing to 10-4 on two Stacie Meisner points and 15-6 on two four Barbara Freitas points.

A missed Lancer serve and a Hailey Mueller kill pushed the lead to 16-7 sending Kelly to the service line. All the 5-foot-9 freshman from Loveland, Colo., did was serve 14 straight points behind three Freitas kills, and two kills each from Jones and Pacheco kills for the 30-7 win.

WNCC continued its strong serving in game three as Kelly served four straight points, including an ace, for a 16-6 lead. EWC rebounded cutting the lead to 23-15 on two Amy McCracken points. After the teams exchanged points, Kelly finished off the Lancers with four service points for the win.

What impressed Petsch the most was how his team rebounded from the second game white-wash and the third game comeback.

Freitas led WNCC with 11 kills followed by Eichler with 10, Jones and Pacheco with eight a piece, Bianca Rivera with seven, and Kendra Schauermann with six.

WNCC also saw Pacheco finish with 43 assists, eight digs, six points and four blocks; Freitas chip in with eight digs and five points; Eichler with six digs; Kelly with 22 points, one ace and seven digs; Schauermann with seven digs and four points; Rivera with 11 digs; and Stacie Meisner with nine digs, six points and two aces.

Amie McCracken paced the Lancers with six points and eight digs, while Charissa Innes had 10 assists, Sarah Blausey eight assists, Katie Bradfield four kills, and Tanna Nussbaum three blocks.

Eichler said they will need to utilize the effort they put forth in the second and third games today against NJC, who enters the contest with a 34-6 mark.

“We played really well, but we will have to play a lot better [today] to beat NJC,” she said. “It is on their home court and with a lot funs. Hopefully we won’t buckle under the pressure.”

The Cougars might be without leading hitter Leticia Kuhn for a second straight match today. Kuhn sat out the EWC game with a calf injury and her status for the NJC match is up in the air. Today’s contest will be broadcasted by KPNY-FM on 102.1 and the Internet at kpnyfm.com.