WNCC volleyball goes to 33-1 with sweep of Casper College

For photos of the WNCC and Casper College match, go to the WNCC athletic photo album at wncccougars.albumpost.com

The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team showcased a ruthless defense that stymied a good Casper College offense attack Tuesday in sweeping the Thunderbirds 30-13, 30-22, 30-11 at Cougar Palace.

“We played good defense and our transition from defense to offense was very good tonight,” WNCC coach Chris Green said. “We like to run the middle attack off of that defensive transition if our dig is good enough. It happened four or five times tonight where we ran a quick attack off a defensive play and that is almost always successful.”

The Cougars forte Tuesday was definitely defense and serving, and they showcased those two strengths to the max. Three Cougars finished with double-digit scoring, led by Gering’s Stacie Meisner with 16 points followed by Fatima Balza with 12 and Soriana Pacheco with 11.

But, as strong at serving the Cougars were, they were just as stellar in the back and along the front rows. The team finished with 25 kills, led by Chelsea Lyles with eight and Pacheco with six.

Defensively, Nayka Benitez finishing with 11 digs followed by Meisner with nine, Daphine DaSilva with eight, and Balza and Pacheco with six each.

In fact, WNCC’s defense was so dominant that the Thunderbird’s leading hitter, Agata Dawidowicz, finished with just eight kills with six coming in the closet game of the match, the second game.

“When we played Casper the first time (at Casper), we didn’t hardly block them at all. I think we had one or two blocks the entire match,” Green said. “They run a very quick offense. They set the ball out to the antenna very quickly and since the first time we played them, we adjusted very well to what they do. Our block did a great job tonight.”

The Cougars made quick work of the Thunderbirds in games one and three. In game one, WNCC ran out to a 14-5 lead behind four service points by Balza. Aida Bauza also put on hitting clinic during that run as the freshman from Puerto Rico hammered home six kills.

Balza finished off the Thunderbirds with five service points with some Lyles collecting three kills for the 30-13 win.

Game two was a battle between the two Region IX rivals. Casper led the No. 1 Cougars 6-5 on a Maja Jechorek kill. The lead was short-lived with WNCC rebounding on three Da Silva service points for a 9-6 lead.

WNCC pushed the lead to 15-8 on three Pacheco points, only to see Casper’s Jodi Williams bring the Thunderbirds back with thee points, including two kills by Vanessa Muir and Agata Dawidowicz at 15-12.

Both teams kept battling back and forth with Casper slicing the lead to two points, 18-16 on two Muir points. Jennifer Eichler came back and took things into her own care and hammered home a kill to stop the run, turning the momentum over to WNCC and the 30-22 win.

Game three was even more lopsided as Pacheco served five points for a 5-0 lead and then Meisner had a 13-point service run for a 23-5 lead. After that, the Cougars never looked back for the 30-11 win.

“Last year we had a stretch where we really struggled at home. And, today I was happy how we came out and played on our home court. I know we are a very good tournament team where after we play a match or two, we are really fired and warmed up. And, to see us come out and play like we did tonight with just one match, it is a good thing that we could be dominate in one match.”

Bauza and Eichler also put up good offense, each finishing with double-digit kills. Bauza had 15 kills, as well as four blocks and three digs, while Eichler had 13 kills and two blocks.

Also for WNCC, Lyles had six kills; Balza had seven kills and three aces; Pacheco had six kills, 45 set assists and two aces; Schauermann had three digs and six points; and Meisner had two aces to go with her 16 points.

WNCC, 33-1, is in a midst of a string of matches where they will see the practice floor just twice – today and a week from Wednesday. In the meantime, they will have five more home matches in a seven day stretch.

“We don’t practice much in the next two weeks,” Green said. “In the next two weeks we do a lot of playing here and hopefully we improved tonight and got better as a team. I think this was a big improvement over our McCook match [on Saturday]. We won’t work too hard in practice [today] to get ready for Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

“Then, next week is a big week too. We only have a Wednesday practice before that big tournament in Kansas. So, we only have two more practices before we go down and play some Top 10 teams [at Liberal, Kan.].”

The Cougars return to action Thursday when they host Lamar Community College in a 7 p.m. contest, followed by contests with Otero Junior College on Friday, Trinidad State on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m., Eastern Wyoming College on Monday and Northeastern Junior College on Tuesday.