WNCC soccer teams host Western Wyoming in regular-season home finale

The Western Nebraska Community College men’s and women’s soccer teams are looking to gain some momentum Tuesday when they host Western Wyoming Community College at the Landers Soccer Complex.

The women kick things off at 12:30 p.m. followed by the men at 2:30. The contests will be the team’s regular-season home finales, before they host the Region IX playoffs Oct. 19 and 21.

“We are pretty excited that we get to go against Western Wyoming in our last home game [before regionals],” women’s soccer player Paige Achatz said. “We are starting to get a little more healthy. The game with Coffeyville hurt us a lot. They were a tough team and took three of our players out at one time. Mara [Crouch] is still hurt and we don’t Jess [Aragon], one of our stronger players in the back, who tore her ACL.”

Achatz said that the women’s team is looking to perform better then they did the first time they played the Mustangs back in September. In that contest, the Cougars held a slim 2-0 halftime lead, before opening up the scoring for a 10-0 win.

“We have to come out stronger then last game since the score at the last game was 2-0,” the sophomore said. “We really need to come out a lot stronger and play harder as a team and work more combinations up top. We controlled the ball [the first match], we just weren’t get shots off as much as we needed to.

“We are hoping to get more shots off and build our confidence a lot more and prepare for this weekend against Dodge and Garden City.”

The Cougar men weren’t as fortunate in their first encounter with Western Wyoming, falling to the Mustangs in double overtime 4-3 in a game they controlled possession 70 percent of the time, hitting the cross bar 14 times.

“The guys lost to Western Wyoming in double overtime, and hopefully they can come out with a win this game,” she said.

Both teams are coming off of losses last week to Laramie County Community College, the men falling 1-0 and the women 3-1. Both teams are looking to gain some momentum heading into the final weeks of their seasons.

“We are fighting hard to beat LCCC this year,” Achatz said. “Hopefully the next three games will help us prepare for that [regional playoffs].”

After Tuesday’s contest, both teams will wrap up the regular season on the road when they travel to Garden City Community College and Dodge City Community College this weekend.

The Cougar men will then open the Region IX playoffs on Oct. 19 with a first-round contest. The men’s championship game is slated for Oct. 21 in the afternoon. The women will face Laramie County Community College on Oct. 21 at noon for the right to advance to the district playoffs.