Top-ranked WNCC volleyball topples NJC, runs record to 38-1

The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team finished with three players with double figure kills and played stellar defense in rolling over Northeastern Junior College in three games Tuesday at Cougar Palace.

The Cougars, 38-1 and winners of their last 29 straight matches, earned an impressive 30-24, 30-23, 30-20 win over the Plainswomen.

“Aida did some nice things, had some nice sets, and went one-on-one with their blockers quite a bit. That accounts for her 16 kills,” WNCC coach Chris Green said. “We really need to get Jennifer Eichler involved more in the offense, swinging more then tonight.”

Green said that their defense was also key against a good NJC team, that is ranked No. 17 in the country.

“They really served tough. They had two or three jump servers and that kind of kept us out of our offense as much as we liked,” he said. “But we have been playing good defense here in October and the end of September. They had good hitters, but we blocked them well at times. I don’t think they played as well as they can and capable of either. I think they had a lot of hitting errors, too. I expect when we go to NJC to play them, we will have to play better then this to beat them.”

Still, Green said they will need to play better this weekend at the Seward County Invite.

"Statistically, I don’t; think this was a real good game for us,” he said. “We had way too many serving errors [16], some hitting errors that we shouldn’t have had and we are still trying to get used to this new line-up [with Shawntell Jones back]. So we struggled with that. This weekend when we go down and play some Top 10 teams, we are not going to get away with that many missed serves.

“We were fired up and I think we were too fired up and a little anxious to play this match and that may explain some of the serving errors. Serving is our Achilles heel and we had too many errors tonight and it happened too often.”

Tuesday night, a day after serving 21 aces against Eastern Wyoming, the Cougars had just five aces against NJC. And, while their serving was down, the Cougars flexed their hitting and defensive stamina in front of a loud crowd, who were dressed in black and pink in honor of Black Out Night and Breast Cancer Awareness Night. Aida Bauza did the most damage along the frontline, pounding home 17 kills, including seven in the third game.

Fatima Balza and Jennifer Eichler also finished with double-digit kills. Balza had 14 kills, six of which came in the opening game. Eichler finished with 10 kills, including the game winner in the second set.

NJC had just one player with double-figure kills, as Addi Radke finished with 10. Three others had six kills each. Suyan Leilpelt led the Plainswomen with 12 digs.

WNCC, on the other hand, played solid defense saving balls all over the court. Pacheco led the team with nine digs followed by Kendra Schauermann with seven, and Stacie Meisner, Chelsea Lyles and Daphine Da Silva with five each.

In fact it was that defense that carried the Cougars to the win. After winning the first game 30-24, including jumping out to a 6-0 lead, WNCC had to fight tooth and nail with the Plainswomen in the final two games.

NJC’s only leads of the night were in the second game, including leading 10-9 on a Jessica Tjaden kill. After that, the Cougars came alive pushing the lead to 17-12 on two pancake saves. NJC came back slicing the lead to 24-21 on a Alexis Eliades and Brittany Larson block.

It didn’t last as Bauza came right back and hammered home a kill. WNCC kept their hitting going as Eichler finished game two with two more kills, and Bauza and Jones each had a kill for the win.

Game three also saw some stellar defensive plays. This time, though, WNCC led start to finish, but had to fight off NJC on several occasions of a comeback. They managed it with, again, good defense and two four-point service runs by Meisner and Nayka Benitez that pushed the lead to 20-9.

NJC fought back as Tamy Leipelt served up four points to cut the lead to 23-17, but a Eichler soft tip right over the blockers stopped the momentum. After that, Meisner served up two points and the Cougars cruised to the 30-20 win.

Bauza, besides finishing with 16 kills, also had two blocks for the Cougars. Also for WNCC, Pacheco had 42 set assists, four kills, six points and nine digs; Benitez had two aces, 10 points and four digs; Da Silva had seven points and five digs; Jones had five points and five kills; Schauermann had five points and seven kills; and Meisner had 10 points, three aces and five kills.

WNCC will return to action Thursday when they face McCook Community College on the road. They then will face Barton County and Hutchinson on Friday, and then Frank Phillips on Saturday in the Seward County Invite, with a fourth opponent to be determined by pool play.