WNCC women’s basketball ranked No. 9 in pre-season poll

When the Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team opens up in two weeks, they will have plenty of motivation to build upon after the NJCAA released their pre-season polls.

The WNCC women earned the No. 9 spot in the pre-season Top 30 national polls released Wednesday. Last season the Cougar women ended up 27-2 and fell to Casper College in the finals of the Region IX tournament. Casper College, 26-9 a year ago, earned honorable mention votes in the first poll.

For WNCC sophomore Alison Cheney, she was surprised by not only the team ranking, but by the fact that she was a pre-season second team all-American selection.

“The rankings come to a surprise to me,” Cheney, the sophomore from Ault, Colo., said. “The rankings prove that we deserve the ninth-ranking. I didn’t think we would be ranked that high. Being ranked that high, we definitely need to prove that we should be up there.”

For Cheney, who averaged double figures scoring a year ago, was surprised in learning that she was a pre-season all-American candidate.

“I is an honor to be a second team all-American. I will be shooting for that honor [after the season now] and try to make first team,” she said. “Trying to stay there will be one of my goals.”

The Cougar women, though, will be faced with a dainty task of staying ranked, especially with an inexperienced squad. The Cougars return just four players from last year’s 27-2 squad. Besides Cheney, who averaged 14 points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals a game, other sophomores include 6-foot Chelsea Lyles, 6-0 Dana Iverson, 6-foot Emma Beddome and 6-0 Carly Glison.

“The sophomores help out the freshmen a lot, telling them what they need to do,” Cheney said. “They come and ask us questions.”

The rest of the squad are freshmen, and Cheney said there is some raw talent that will push the best from the sophomore squad.

“The freshmen are just as talented and knowledgeable as our team was last year. They work very hard and that makes up for a lot,” she said. “They arte young and as they get more experience and know what is going on, get a feel for the college game, they will start playing like they know how. Some of the freshmen are stepping up and proving themselves and I think that makes us sophomores work harder. That means that we will need to earn our spots in the line-up.”

The one goal for the Cougars is to get back to the national tournament, something that still brings a bad sense to the returning players. They desperately want that trip to Salina, Kan., in March.

“Hopefully going higher in the polls will be great for our team,” Cheney said. “We just need to prove to ourselves [we are deserving of the rankings] and play like we know how and play as a team. I really want to get to the national tournament. Last year was a big disappointment.”

Teams ahead of WNCC in the polls include Seward County Community College coming in as the pre-season No. 1 ranked team. The rest of the top include Trinity Valley Community College at No. 2, Midland College at No. 3, Chipola College at No. 4 and Central Arizona College at No. 5.

The rest of the top 10 seed Copiah-Lincoln Community College at sixth, Southeastern Illinsoix at seven, Gulf Coast Community College at eight, WNCC at nine and the University of Arkansas-Ft Smith at No. 10.

No other Region IX team is ranked in the top 30. Several teams, however, received honorable mention votes, including Casper College and Miles Community College.

WNCC opens the season Nov. 1-3 in a tournament in Williston, N.D. The Cougars will open with Salish Kootenai College followed by contests with Williston State College and Lake Region College.

Cheney is hoping the team is ready to tip off the season in two weeks. In the meantime, they will have two scrimmages to work out the kinks between the newcomers and the sophomores. WNCC will scrimmage South Dakota Tech on Oct. 23 at WNCC and then travel to Chadron State for a scrimmage Oct. 27.

“We are not fully all the way there to play in a few weeks. But, hopefully in the next two weeks we will be,” she said. “We will be all-right. We keep working hard and people play like they know how to play, we will be all-right.”

1	Seward County Community College	Liberal, KS	36-2	0	0	0
2	Trinity Valley Community College	Athens, TX	24-7	0	0	0
3	Midland College	Midland, TX	20-11	0	0	0
4	Chipola College	Marianna, FL	30-7	0	0	0
5	Central Arizona College	Coolidge, AZ	33-3	0	0	0
6	Copiah-Lincoln Community College	Wesson, MS	30-5	0	0	0
7	Southeastern Illinois College	Harrisburg, IL	33-3	0	0	0
8	Gulf Coast Community College	Panama City, FL	27-4	0	0	0
9	Western Nebraska Community College	Scottsbluff, NE	27-2	0	0	0
10	University of Arkansas-Fort Smith	Fort Smith, AR	18-12	0	0	0
11	College of Southern Idaho	Twin Falls, ID	25-7	0	0	0
12	Georgia Perimeter College	Decatur, GA	25-7	0	0	0
13	Tyler Junior College	Tyler, TX	28-8	0	0	0
14	State Fair Community College	Sedalia, MO	22-9	0	0	0
15	Monroe Community College	Rochester, NY	30-3	0	0	0
16	Shelton State Community College	Tuscaloosa, AL	31-14	0	0	0
17	Northeast Mississippi Community College	Booneville, MS	19-7	0	0	0
18	Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College	Miami, OK	25-8	0	0	0
19	Yavapai College	Prescott, AZ	25-7	0	0	0
20	Rend Lake College	Ina, IL	24-8	0	0	0
21	Sauk Valley Community College	Dixon, IL	14-17	0	0	0
22	Coffeyville Community College	Coffeyville, KS	30-4	0	0	0
23	South Plains College	Levelland, TX	31-2	0	0	0
24	Walters State Community College	Morristown, TN	23-12	0	0	0
25	Barton County Community College	Great Bend, KS	27-3	0	0	0
26	Wallace State Community College-Hanceville	Hanceville, AL	22-11	0	0	0
27	Tallahassee Community College	Tallahassee, FL	23-8	0	0	0
28	Meridian Community College	Meridian, MS	17-11	0	0	0
29	Louisburg College	Louisburg, NC	24-4	0	0	0
30	North Dakota State College of Science	Wahpeton, ND	23-9	0	0	0