WNCC volleyball in championship match; defeated No. 1 Salt Lake in five tough games.

For more photos of the match go to wncccougars.albumpost.com

Western Nebraska Community College coach Chris Green couldn’t say enough about his defense Friday night against No. 1 Salt Lake Community College.

In fart, it was the back row that tallied the Cougars into the NJCAA championship match with a thrilling five game win over the Bruins, 30-19, 31-29, 21-30, 30-24, 15-12. The win sends the Cougars into their second straight title match against No. 2 seed Miami Dade today at 6 p.m. Miami Dade swept past Frank Phillips College 30-18, 30-22, 30-27.

“We have one happy group down there [on the floor],” Green said. “Hopefully we can get some sleep tonight and hopefully they will relax and get ready to play probably one of the most athletic team that I have seen in a while here. Miami Dade is incredible. We will have to play one heck of a game [today]."

But, if the Cougars play defense like they did against Salt Lake Friday, the Cougars should do just fine. Green couldn’t say enough positives about a defense that rose to the occasion when the Cougar’s backs were against the wall.

“Salt Lake was an amazing team. They had some great hitters in outside hitters Cinthia Silva and Samantha Richard and Talita Santo was amazing, in the middle. Those three players are incredible. But, our defense in the backrow was great,” Green said. “I just want to compliment our back row defense. Kwndra, Nayka, Daphine, Stacie; those four players had so many digs from those hard hits and we saved so many balls in digging those balls nice and high. It was that great defense that helped us win.”

“They don’t get a lot of credit a lot of times. Tonight, it was their night. They played great defense. We will have to do that even more so tomorrow against Miami Dade.

The Cougars defense, especially in the fourth and fifth game, stepped up their play big time. WNCC had four players register double-figure digs led by Nayka Benitez with 24, Daphine Da Silva with 17, Kendra Schauermann with 14 and Soriana Pacheco with 12.

But, as much as the defense played, it was the heart and drive of the Cougar ladies that persevered in a match that Salt Lake had the momentum early.

“It was a great win and having to come back in the second game was really exciting,” Green said. “I have said this four or five times already, but that was the key. Coming from behind and not giving up in that second game. We got beat pretty bad in the first game, got way behind in the second,, and we kept fighting and fighting and we were able to win that second game.”

Green said the second game win was crucial, especially since the Cougars trailed 18-11 in the game and came back to win 31-29 WNCC accomplished that win by pure dedication. First it was three service points from Gering’s Stacie Meisner to slice the lead 19-16. Then, after Salt Lake went up 26-21 and seemed to have the Cougars on the rope, Jennifer Eichler and Soriana Pacheco teamed up on a block.

Schauermann followed with three points to cut the lead to 26-25. Moments later, Eichler, who is making a cause for tournament MVP, heated up on the attack with a thundering kill. WNCC then had their backs on the ropes once again at 29-28. This time, Pacheco found the floor on a setter’s dink. Da Silva finished off the Bruins with two service points as Pacheco hammered home the game winning kill from the rightside.

Salt Lake rebounded in the third game finding holes in the Cougars defense left and right. The Bruins won 30-21 and seemed in control of the match.

No one told the Cougar players that as WNCC did to the Bruins what they did to them. WNCC came out in the fourth game and took control of the momentum. Meisner started things off on a hot note giving WNCC a 5-1 lead before three Benitez points, two of which were aces, pushed the lead to 10-3.

WNCC widened the lead to 20-12 on two Pacheco points and a huge Eichler kill. But, Salt Lake fought back slicing the lead to 24-22 on five points from Tela Burnett. WNCC came back as Chelsea Lyles hammered home a kill followed by three Da Silva service points for a 28-22 lead. After a missed serve, Aida Bauza came back with a kill to help WNCC force a game five.

Game five was all Cougars. In fact, Salt lake led just once at 1-0. After that, WNCC took contorl grabbing a 9-6 lead on three Benitez points, two of which were aces. Salt Lake fought back slicing the lead to 12-11 on a kill from Talita Santos. It didn’t matter, though, as WNCC’s Eichler became money in the bank with other kill to put WNCC up 13-11. After a Salt Lake timeout, Fatima Balza rattled home a kill to move WNCC to 14-11 before WNCC won the game on a hitting error by Salt Lake.

Eichler, who finished the game with 17 kills and five blocks said it turned out that they wanted it more then the Bruin players.

“This win was huge. It was very big and we are so excited to have won it,” she said. “We won this game because we wanted to and there is a national championship on the line. We came into the gym expecting to be going five games with them. Now, we are in the championship match again.”

Eichler said they will need to play just has hard against Miami Dade, who has won four national titles since 1999.

“We know what they are made of. They are Miami Dade,” she said. “They have a huge block, big arms and they are tall girls. We just have to play our best.”

Eichler said, however, they probably wouldn’t mind of playing Miami Dade right away Friday night after the blockbuster win in the semi-finals.

“There is probably enough adrenalin that we probably could if we needed to,” she said. “The other thing is that we probably wouldn’t because we a little tired, but we could if we needed to.”

Same with freshman Aida Bauza, who led the team with 22 kills. She said this team showed plenty of heart to move into the championship match.

“I think the key to the win was to play hard. We were down and then we got motivated and said to keep playing hard,” she said. “That was the key. “

WNCC also received eight kills and eight blccks from Fatima Balza, three blocks and four points from Shawntell Jones, eight points, four aces and 24 digs from Benitez, six digs and seven kills from Chelsea Lyles, nine kills and 54 set assists from Pacheco, seven points and 14 digs from Schaerermann, and eight points and five digs from Stacie Meisner.