When Western Nebraska Community College’s Aida Bauza steps on the court today for the National Junior College Athletic Association volleyball tournament, she will be seeing a familier face across the net.
The Cougars will faace Hillsborough Community College today at 3 p.m. in the first round and that will pit Bauza against the Hawks’ Emily Calderon-Reyes. Both are from Puerto Rico and have faced each other on the court many times.
“They have a Puerto Rican girl that I played with that is very good. They set her a lot so we practiced on blocking her,” Bauza said. “But they have one girl that is really good [and we have have many].”
Calderon-Reyes leads the Hawks with 638 kills on the season (5.15 per game). The freshman from Cayey, Puerto Rico, also has 364 digs and 50.5 blocks per season. Calderon-Reyes is just one of three Puerto Ricans on the team. The Hawks also feature 5-foot-6 sophomore setter Yamari Padilla-Collazo., who is averaging 12.71 set assusts a game. Padilla-Collazo also has 231 digsm 68 aces and 125,
Hillsboro also feature 5-10 freshman Nallelis Sanfeliz-Ramieriz of Puerot Rico, 5-7 freshman Le’Derrianne Golden of Ft. Pierce, Fla., and 6-0 Jasmine Chriss of Tampa, Fla,
WNCC coach Chris Green said Hillsborough is in ways similar to his, but according to what he can tell on paper and through the Internet, it seems the Hawks strength is their outside hitters.
“All I know about Hillsborough is what I got from the NJCAA statistics,” he said. “They have one outside hitter that is good and I don’t think they rely on their middle hitters as much as we do.”
Green said, however, that Hillsborough is dangerous having almost beat perrenial national power and currently 30-0 Miami-Dade College. Hillsborough fell to Miami-Dade in the state finals 30-25, 30-27, 27-30, 27-30. Hillsborough is 0-3 against national tournament teams, falling twice to Miami Dade and then losing to Missouri-West Plains in five games 25-30, 30-24, 30-28, 26-30, 15-12.WNCC, on the other hand, is 8-2 against national participant teams, falling only to Frank Phillips and Salt Lake. The Cougars have defeated Casper College, Barton County, Salt Lake Community College and College of Southern Idaho.
While there are several areas that the two teams have in common, the Cougars have a more balanced attack. Leading he list is setter Soriana Pacheco, who is averaging 11 set assists a game. The 5-10 sophomore also holds the career record for points served with 960 and the single season ace recford with 142. She also has tallied 259 kills and 95 blocks.
Pacheco, though, has plenty of weapons to set to. Bauza is one of those weapons. The 5-10 freshman is second on the team in kills with 412. She also has 50 blocks on the season.
The other hitters for the Cougars include sophomore Jennifer Eichler, who has netted 502 kills this season, while blocking 141 shots. Other weapons include 6-3 Fatima Balza, the team leader in blocking with 177, 6-0 Shawntell Jones, 6-0 Chelsea Lyles.
The Cougars also feature a strong serving and defensive corp. Leading the list are freshman nayka Benitez and sophomore Stacie Meisner. Meisner, a Gering graduate, has been razor sharp from the service line serving up 83 aces and xxx points, while Benitez, who missed the regional tournament after being hospitalized with an infection, has 125 aces and 476 digs.
The Cougars have also received stellar defensive play from sophomore Kendra Schauermann and freshman Daphine Da Silva. Schauermann, who filled in admiredly for Benitez at the libero position during regionals, had 301 digs on the season. Da Silva has also chipped in 256 digs, while also providing a lift from the service and hitting lines.
Green said that one of the things that should be in their favor is a big arena, even bigger then the one at West Plains, Mo.
“The gym is similar to West Plains except that it is bigger and there is more room to jump serve,” he said. “That should help our jump servers, Sori and Nayka, during the tournament.”
Bauza agrees that this year’s team has the right feel to make some noise at the national tournament.
“I think the unit that we have and the coaches that we have are good,” she said. “We trust everybody and that helps a lot. Also, Soriana helps us a lot because the setting is very good. Then the passing is good, also. We are playing really good right now. We just have to play hard every game, every point.”
The Cougars went through a practice session early Wednesday and Green said that the last half of the session went really well. He is hoping his team comes ready to play this afternoon.
“The last 10 minutes went really well,” he said. “the first part we had way too many hitting errors and that is something that we will need to avoid in the tournament.”
WNCC enters today’s match with a 50-2 record, was ranked No. 1 in the country for most of the season. That was, of course, until they were upended by Frank Phillips College at the Seward Invitational. Bauza said in the long run, that loss might be a blessing since it refocused the team.
“I think that loss helped us a lot to see what we need to work on and work for to get to nationals and get better,” she said. “This team is very good. We have the good passers. We have good hitters. We have the setting with Sori. I think it is a good team. We would like to be ranked No. 1 going in, but that is OK.”
If the Cougars win their opening match, they will play Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m. against the winner of the University of Arkansas-Ft. Smith and Temple College. If they should falter, they will fall to the consolation bracket and play at 11 a.m. Friday against the loser of UA-Ft. Smith and Temple.
Bauza, though, doesn’t want to fall into the consolation bracket and can’t wait to compete in one of the biggest tournaments that she has played in when the tournament tips off today.
“I am very excited for nationals. I want to win and I want to play good. I think all the ladies will play good,” she said. “We just need to play good on both sides of the net. We are going to make it. If we play well all the time, I know that we can, we will bring home a national title. I am very excited and I want to play already.”
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