No. 1 WNCC volleyball team goes to 30-1, wins three matches in Wyo-Braska Shootout

Story is below the photos -- All these photos are of the Seward County game or festivities right before the 8 p.m. contest with the Saints.

The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team utilized a block party in the tune of 21 blocks to finish the second day of the Wyo-Braska Shootout volleyball tournament unbeaten with a 3-game sweep of Seward County Community College.

WNCC, trailing 14-12 in the first game, heated up their blocking and overcame the No. 14 team in the nation 30-20, 30-17, 30-20 in an action packed match. The win helped the Cougars move the top-ranked team in the nation to 29-1 on the season.

WNCC earlier defeated Miles Community College 30-13, 30-11, 30-15 and then disposed of Casper College 30-10, 30-21, 30-13. The Cougars have one match left in the Wyo-Braska Shootout tournament when they face Colby Community College today at 11 a.m. at Cougar Palace.

Eastern Wyoming College finished day two of the shootout 1-1 defeating Trinidad State 30-20, 30-22, 30-23, before falling to Northeastern Colorado 30-15, 30-27, 30-20. The Lancers will have two matches today at Torrington, Wyo. They will face Miles City at 9 a.m. and McCook at 11 a.m.

WNCC, though, continues to roll through the season and Cougar coach Chris Green couldn’t be more pleased with he is season, especially his team rising to the task when they need to step it up.

“I think this team loves to play against good competition. They were excited to come out to play against Casper, which they knew would be a good match,” he said. “They are always excited to play good teams and that is great. And, you are right, we play very well when we have to.”

And, the team’s blocking and defense proved key once against Saturday especially in the Seward County match.

“We blocked pretty well, but that happens when you have a good team swinging hard at you,” Green said. “It was a good blocking game for us. A lot of times the outside players use our rightside players arms, but we adjusted a little bit and get some blocks. We had some big blocks throughout the match and that was one of the keys to our victory.”

WNCC finished with 21 blocks in the match. Fatima Balza had seven blocks followed by Jennifer Eichler with five, Chelsea Lyles with four and Daphine da Silva with three.

The team’s defense also stepped up and Green said there were saves that he was amazed at, which caused a lot of long rallies.

“We had some good defense, and even had some good coverage,” he said. “We were swinging pretty hard at their block pretty good and when the ball came back at us we were able to make a save and keep the ball off the floor for our attackers.”

Nayka Benitez led the team with 15 digs followed by Soriana Pacheco with 10, da Silva with seven, Kendra Schauermann with six and Stacie Meisner with four.

What makes this year’s Cougar team special is they have a knack to step up to the occasion. And, during a crucial mid-point of the third game when the momentum seemed to be turning after an illegal screen was called on the Cougars, WNCC stepped up their game even more.

WNCC was cruising 13-5 before the illegal screen was called. Once that call was made, Seward County made a run cutting the deficit to 15-10. The Cougars righted the ship on two thundering kills by Eichler and then continued to build the lead back on three Benitez kills to push the lead to 23-14.

The Cougars finally put the Saints away on a Aida Bauza kill to earn the victory.

“We had some long rallies and it was some good volleyball,” Green said. “They have a very good team. They have two outside hitters that are very good and they have good ball control. They pass and serve pretty well. But, except for our serving [WNCC had 18 service errors], we also played pretty well.”

In earlier matches for the Cougars, WNCC cruised through Miles flashing their depth with several players standing out. Daphine da Silva finished with eight points, one ace, 13 digs and five kills; Soriana Pacheco had five aces, 10 points, 23 set assists, four digs and four kills; Nayka Benitez had one ace, three points and seven digs; Kendra Schauermann had 12 points, three aces and 12 digs; Stacie Meisner had 13 points, five aces, two digs, six set assists and five kills; Heather Steggs had two points, two aces, two digs and one kill; Fatima Balza had three points, seven kills and four blocks; Chelsea Lyles had three points, two digs and six kills; Aida Bauza had 11 kills; and Cassie Vrooman ahd five set assists.

WNCC was just as impressive in its win against Casper College, in defeating the talented team for the third time in two weeks. The Cougars, once again, had contributions from many players.

Eichler paced the Cougars with 13 kills and four blocks. Also for the No. 1-ranked squad Pacheco had 13 points, 37 set assists and nine digs; Balza had eight points, eight kills and one ace; da Silva had six points, one ace, nine kills and five digs; Benitez had seven points and 20 digs; Schauerman had eight points and nine digs; Meisner had six points and two aces; and Lyles had eight kills and four blocks.

Green expects another tough test against a good Colby team at 11 a.m. today.

“They really gave us fits at Sterling in the first game,” he said. “It was a tough game and were luck to win that first game of the match. They are a good team and talented team that will play up to the level of competition. We expect a big challenge from them tomorrow.”

Other tournament scores from the Scottsbluff site include Northeastern Junior College defeating Sheridan College 17-30, 29-31, 30-26, 30-15, 15-10; Northwest (Wyo.) College beating McCook Community College 24-31, 33-31, 30-28, 24-30, 17-15; Air Force Prep beating McCook 30-17, 30-25, 30-24; Seward County beating Northwest Wyoming 30-16, 30-22, 30-26, Air Force Prep defeating Northwest 30-22, 30-20, 30-21 and Seward County beating Miles City 30-19, 30-21, 30-16.

At Torrington, Friday's scores include Colby Community College beating Laramie County Community College 30-10, 30-26, 30-27; Eastern Wyoming College over Trinidad State Junior College 30-20, 30-22, 30-22; Seward County over Casper College 30-26, 23-30, 30-26, 30-28, Western Wyoming over Colby 30-20, 30-26, 30-19, Sheridan over Trinidad State 30-16, 30-24, 30-21, Western Wyoming over Trinidad State 30-23, 30-23, 38-36, 30-13, and Colby over Sheridan 28-30, 28-30, 30-28, 30-22, 15-13.