WNCC soccer teams fall to Laramie County on Tuesday

Photos of the WNCC and LCCC soccer matches can be found at wncccougars.albumpost.com

The Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team realizes that close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades and the not soccer field after falling in a hard-fought contest with No. 8 Laramie County Community College Tuesday afternoon at the Landers Soccer Complex.

The Cougar women game up a goal within the first two minutes and that was the difference in the 3-2 defeat to the Golden Eagles.

The Cougar men also gave up an early goal to Laramie County Community College Tuesday afternoon, but WNCC never was close in falling 5-0 to the Golden Eagles.

WNCC coach Todd Rasnic said that his ladies team ran out of gas against a faster LCCC team.

“I think we played a bad game tonight. We had too much time off between contests and I saw that fitness dropped a bit and we weren’t able to leave our starters on as long as we would liked,” Rasnic said. “It is unfortunate to have the layoff, but we needed it because of the CU tournament that we played in, we played four games and got pretty beat up.

“They got that early goal, which caught us off guard and after that we shut them down a bit. We still have some work to do. We are trying some different looks. I think we learned a lot tonight [about LCCC] and we will go back to our training to formulate a line up that will be necessary to win in the Region IX playoffs.”

LCCC scored 1 minute, 57 second into the match on a goal by Michaela Boyd. That was the only goal of the half as the Golden Eagles took a 1-0 lead into intermission.

Rasnic said that early goal was a difference.

“The truth is we played a quality match for about 25 minutes and that is the bottom line. We have to play 90 minutes at full speed and full pace and control the match and we didn’t do it,” he said. “When you don’t do it against a top team, you lose. That is the way it is. Our ladies know that and they know they have some work to do and these games will not just drop in their lap and they need to get out here and work like the champions I know they are. I think you will see them bounce back from this and put some good soccer on the field in the next few games.”

In deed the Cougar women did bounce back in the second half. After Boyd scored with 39 minutes to play in the match to put LCCC up 2-0, Ashley Quintana quickly changed the complexion of the match, netting a goal at the 36:22 mark. In fact, Quintana’s goal came off a ricochet off LCCC goal keeper Emily Michna for the goal.

The Golden Eagles went up 3-1 with 22 minutes to play on a goal by Samantha Larson that just sailed over Cougar goal keeper Terri Huntington’s out-stretched arms.

WNCC sliced the lead to one on a beautiful goal by Jaimie Gastelle. Gastelle took a pass from Laura Abbott and placed the ball perfectly in the top center of the net for the score.

The Cougars had three other prime scoring opportunities to tie the score, including two with under five minutes to play, but their shots were just off line.

Huntington recorded eight saves in net, while LCCC’s Michna had five saves. WNCC had nine shots compared to LCCC’s 12.

The men’s contest turned out not to be even a contest as the Golden Eagles scored early and often to vault to a 3-0 lead at halftime. The Golden Eagles scored their first goal just a minute into the match as Romeo Kabanda scored off an assist from Alex Post. Kabanda quickly made it 2-0 at the 38 minute mark when he scored off an assist from Shane Brown.

Later, LCCC’s Adrian Beckham scored off another Brown assist for the 3-0 lead.

LCCC added two more goals in the second half. Tyler Arbuckle had an unassisted goal at the 23:32 minute mark of the second half. LCCC added another goal with 8:20 left to play.

WNCC did have some scoring opportunities, including four shots in the first half, but only could get three shots in the second half. LCCC didn’t have that many shots either. They, in fact, were just 5o percent for the game, making five of 10 shots.

Cesar Bazana recorded eight saves in net for WNCC.

The Cougars will be back in action Saturday when they travel to Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs, Wyo. The two teams will then be back at Landers Soccer Complex for their home finale on Sunday against Dodge City Community College with the women’s match starting at noon and the men’s match at 2 p.m.

WNCC volleyball takes down McCook in three sets

Photos of the McCook contest can be found at wncccougars.albumpost.com

The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team showed little rust after a 10-day lay-off between matches.

And what makes WNCC’s win Tuesday night at Cougar Palace even more impressive is the fact swept McCook Community College in three sets with just seven Cougars suited up because of various reasons. The Cougars registered a 25-12, 25-16, 25-12 win over the Indians for their 80^th straight home victory to run their record to 32-2 on the season.

“Considering the circumstances, I think we did a good job,” first year coach Giovana Melo said. “The players picked it up and some of them played in a role they haven’t played in before.”

The one Cougar that stood out Tuesday night was Paloma Alvarez, who rattled home 14 kills on the night to lead both teams. Alvarez also had three aces, five points, three blocks and five digs.

“I think she stepped it up tonight,” Melo said of her sophomore outside hitter. “I think she saw that we were missing a couple of players and she said, ‘let me take care of it.’ I was proud of her.”

WNCC did, however, also get strong serving games from Sabina Piezga and Fatima Balza, who both had 14 points and four aces each. Balza also had six kills, two blocks and eight digs; while Piegza had 25 set assists, three kills, four blocks, and two digs.

Also chipping in for the Cougars were Brooke Bloomenkamp with three points and five digs; Naomi Flinders with six points, five kills, two blocks and six digs; Paulina Piegza with two aces, seven points, eight kills, five blocks and five digs; and Whitney Roth with one block.

The McCook was paced by Whitney Hochstettler with four kills and two blocks, while Chelsey Quigley had two blocks, three kills and two aces. Sidney graduate Tara Long finished with seven assists, five points and one ace. Myra Brown also picked up five points.

Even playing short-ended, the Cougars were on top of their game early, running out to a 6-1 lead after Flinders had three service points. WNCC pushed the lead to 10-2 as Balza served up three points and then the Cougars closed out the first set 25-12 as Sabina Piegza ahd four points, including two aces.

The second set was a little tighter as Long served three points to knot the score at 3-3. Later, Brown had four straight points to tie the set once again at 9-9. After a WNCC timeout, the Cougars went to work as Sabina Piegza served up seven points, including two aces and two kills each from Flinders and Alvarez to lead 17-9.

McCook fought back cutting the lead to 17-13, but Alvarez changed the momentum with five points to help the Cougars to the 25-16 win.

The Indians started the third game on fire, leading the No. 2-ranked team in the nation 4-3 and 5-4. That lead was short-lived as Balza served up six points and then Sabina Piegza added four points to put WNCC up 18-8 on their way to a 25-12 win.

Melo said that the lay off might have helped the Cougars refocus after the first half of the season.

“It is hard to stop playing for 10 days and not playing [matches] at all,” she said. “I think it was good for our team to stay away from the ball a little bit. The lay off was good for us, but now, we need to focus back in because we have two big tournaments after this week’s home stand.”

The Cougars will have three more matches this week, beginning with Family Night on Thursday against Lamar Community College at 7 p.m. WNCC will then have Breast Cancer Awareness night on Friday against Otero Junior College at 7 p.m., followed by an afternoon tilt against Trinidad State Junior College on Saturday at 1 p.m.

WNCC softball goes 1-3-1 at Triple Crown tournament over the weekend

More Saturday photos of the tournament located at wncccougars.albumpost.com

The Western Nebraska Community College softball team went 1-3-1 at the Triple Crown Invitational, facing NCAA Division II colleges, in Ft. Collins, Colo., Saturday and Sunday.

The Cougars went 0-2-1 on Saturday, tying Chadron State College 9-9, while falling to the Montana State-Billings 10-2 and Colorado School of Mines 6-1. On Sunday, WNCC lost a heart-breaking contest to Metro State 6-5 before blanking Regis University 5-2.

WNCC sophomore Kelsey Garner said this was good competition against four-year schools.

“I think this weekend we competed well with the four year schools,” the sophomore said. “But the only thing we were lacking was being able to play tough from start to finish.”

That, playing tough throughout, was the case in the five games.

Against Chadron State, the Eagles struck first scoring four times in the first inning as Katie Bolin smacked a double. WNCC rebounded taking a 6-4 lead after four innings with three runs in the second and fourth innings.

In the second inning, Kelsey Garner had a one-out double followed by four straight singles by Jaclyn Bourdon, Mandy Pounds, Adena Hagen and Tonya Atencio to slice the deficit to 4-3.

WNCC took the lead in the fourth with three runs on four hits. Pounds got things started with a 2-out single, followed by singles by Hagen and Atencio. Kelly Pearson followed with a run-scoring triple for the 6-4 lead.

Chadron State tied the game in the fifth as Andrea Wyman led off with a single and scored later on a hit by Allison Hendrickson.

WNCC came back to take a 9-6 lead in the sixth inning. Pounds lead off with a single. Then, after Pearson walked, Sofia Gomez blasted a 3-run home run to put WNCC up 9-5.

WNCC couldn’t hold the lead in the seventh as Chadron State scored four times. Wyman led off the inning with a single. Hendrickson followed with a one-out single and then Casey Williams walked to load the bases. Kristy Long then delivered the big blow, getting a grand slam to tie the game.

Chadron State had four players record two hits. Long paced the team with a 2-for-4 game with six RBIs and a home run. Wyman, Bolin and Hendrickson each went 2-for-3.

The Cougars pounded out 14 hits in the contest with five players finishing with more than two hits. Pounds led the way with a 3-for-4 game along with three runs scored. Hagen, Pearson, Atencio and Garner each had two hits.

In the earlier games on Saturday, WNCC managed just six hits in the 10-2 loss. Brittany Chacon paced the Cougars with a 2-for-2 performance. In the Mines loss, WNCC had just six hits as Alex Voci finished with a 2-for-3 game.

Sunday was a better day for the Cougars even though they split a pair of games. The Cougars opened play falling to Metro State 6-5, giving up two unearned runs in the sixth inning for the defeat. WNCC did strike first in the contest, scoring three times in the fourth inning on singles by Pearson, Pounds, and Karleen Crone.

WNCC added two more runs in the fifth inning to take a 6-0 lead as Atencio and Pearson led off with singles. Then, with two outs, the Cougars got run-scoring singles from Crone and Hannah Strauss for the lead.

Metro State fought back, scoring four runs in the bottom of the fifth and two more in the sixth, including a grand slam, for the win.

WNCC had nine hits in the contest, led by Crone’s 2-for-2 performance, which included a run scored and a RBI. Also collecting multiple hits was Pearson going 2-for-4 with two runs scored.

The Cougars capped the Triple Crown tournament with a thrilling 4-2 win against Regis. Regis took an early 2-0 lead only to watch the Cougars come storming back with a single run in the first and two more in the second for a 3-2 lead.

WNCC took the lead in the second as Lauryn Smith was plucked with a pitch. Hagen then blasted a 2-out triple to score Smith with the tying run. Atencio followed with a single to put WNCC up 3-2.

The Cougars added two insurance runs in the seventh. Hagen singled to lead off the inning and then scored on a Casey Simpson single for the win.

Hagen paced WNCC with a 2-for-3 performance including three runs scored, a triple and a RBI.

WNCC will next be in action Saturday and Sunday when they travel to Seward County Community College and Garden City Community College in Kansas, followed by an Oct. 12 meeting against Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, Colo.

WNCC 101 000 – 2 6 2
MSU-Billings 042 301 – 10 16 2
LP – Stephanie Townsend.

WNCC 001 000 0 – 1 6 1
Mines 203 010 – 6 8 0
LP – Kelsey Garner.

WNCC 030 303 0 – 9 14 2
Chadron St. 400 010 4 – 9 9 2
2B – WNCC (Garner), CSC (Katie Bolin); 3B – WNCC (Kelly Pearson); HR – WNCC (Sofia Gomez), CSC (Kristy Long).

WNCC 000 320 0 – 5 9 4
Metro St. 000 042 x – 6 7 0
LP – Garner; 2B – Hagen.

WNCC 120 000 2 – 5 7 1
Regis 200 000 0 – 2 8 1
WP – Townsend; S – Casey Simpson.

WNCC soccer, volleyball host home matches on Tuesday

It will be a busy week for the Western Nebraska Community College volleyball and soccer teams with plenty of home contests.

Action begins Tuesday as each team will have home contests. The WNCC men’s and women’s soccer teams start the week taking on defending Region IX champions Laramie County Community College at the Landers Soccer Complex.

The Cougar men tangle with the Golden Eagles at 2 p.m., while the Cougar women face the No. 8 team in the nation at 4 p.m.

WNCC coach Todd Rasnic knows his team needs to play a complete match start to finish.

“Both teams have to play at the top of their games,” he said. “The women came out stronger in that first game (a 2-2 tie against LCCC), and they can’t slack off at all. They have to play their game the entire match. We have to be disciplined and we have to be playing at a high rate of speed and win individual challenges with the ball. Talent-wise, they are on track to be a top team this year. If we do that, we have a good chance to come out on top.

“On the men’s side, we just can’t play a first half like we did three or four matches this year. The men need to play a complete game of soccer, and right know they are playing like a one-half team. In order to win, they will need to play for the entire 90 minutes. We did make some changing of our system and moved some players around to use our talent in a correct way.”

The last time the two Region IX schools faced each other, the men lost an overtime thriller 2-1. The women’s team, after trailing 2-0, scored two late second half goals to earn the tie against a ranked team. Rasnic said hoping positive things happen Tuesday for his squad.

“Both games should be good contests,” he said. “I think we have a good chance of coming out on top in both of those contests.”

After the soccer matches on Tuesday, the No. 2-ranked Cougar volleyball team returns to action at 7 p.m. against McCook Community College. WNCC, 31-2 and have not seen action since Sept. 20 when they won the Wyo-Braska Shootout, will begin the first of four home matches on Tuesday.

“It is hard not playing for that long, but it was good to get the team some rest, and now we can get back on track again,” first-year coach Giovana Melo said. “We haven’t played at home matches where people could come see us because the Wyo-Braska was pretty much during the day. Now, people can come watch us and have them get excited with our team.”

Tuesday’s McCook match will also be “Fear the Cougar” wristband night as the first 250 spectators will receive a wristband.

Tuesday’s matches, the Cougars will host Lamar Community College Thursday at 7 p.m., Otero Junior College Friday at 7 p.m. and Trinidad State Junior College at 1 p.m.

Thursday’s contest against will be “Family Night, featuring free children’s ticket with the purchase of an adult ticket, as well as 50 cent hot dogs.

Friday’s match will be “Breast Cancer Awareness Night,” individuals are urged to wear pink to show support for those fighting breast cancer and for cancer survivors. Also, $1 of your ticket price will go to the Dig Pink Foundation to help fight breast cancer. There will be raffles and cancer information during the night.

Saturday’s volleyball match with Trinidad State will honor all the Girl Scout troops. That contest will begin at 1 p.m.

The week’s home contests will end with the men’s and women’s soccer home finale’s slated for Sunday at the Landers Soccer Complex against Dodge City Community College. The women will kick off at noon, while the men will begin at 2 p.m.

WNCC softball wins B Bracket at North Platte Tourney, Garner tosses no-hitter on Saturday

NORTH PLATTE – The Western Nebraska Community College softball team continues to get experience during the fall season after capturing the B Bracket Championship as sophomore pitchers Kelsey Garner and Christy Degano combined on 22 strikeouts on Sunday to spark the Cougars in the two wins.

WNCC earned the B Bracket title with a 8-2 win over York College and then topped Lamar Community College 4-1 in the title contest. The Cougars were 1-2 on Saturday, defeating York College 2-0 behind Garner’s no-hit performance, while falling to Doane College 4-3 and Colby Community College 7-3.

“After our home tournament, it seemed as through everything was clicking. Our bats were hot and our defense and pitching was consistent and it seemed there were a lot of positive things happening,” Garner said. “After this weekend in North Platte, we got to see some better competition in junior colleges and four-year schools and it showed us some things we need to work on. In the end, this tournament will only prepare us to do well this weekend [in Ft. Collins, Colo.] against even better competition in four-year schools.”

The story of the tournament, though, was Degano, who saw her first action as a Cougar.

“I think we did a good job this weekend,” the transfer from Southwest Baptist University in Missouri said. “The girls worked hard and with that work we were able to still come in first place. It was exciting to play and have my first Cougar win and hope there will be more to come. I’m confident that we will have an awesome fall season and I’m looking forward to what spring has coming our way.”

The way the Cougars rebounded from Saturday’s action to Sunday shows the potential of this year’s team. In the bracket portion of the tournament, Garner struck out 11 and allowed four hits in getting the win against York, while Degano struck out 11 and allowed two first-inning hits in the win against Lamar.

Against York, Adena Hagen paced the Cougars with a 3-for-5 performance including getting a double and two runs scored. Kelly Pearson also finished with a 3-for-4 performance. Also getting multiple hits in the game were Tonya Atencio going 2-for-4 with a double, and Alec Voci, going 2-for-4 with two singles.

Hagen, who is the lead-off hitter for the Cougars and had some clutch hits, said they definitely played better on Sunday.

“Over the weekend, our team really started to come together,” the freshman outfielder from Birch Hills, Saskatchewan, said. “The second day of play we made adjustments and started linking hits together. We had an important game against Lamar and came out and finished with a win.”

In the championship game against Lamar, WNCC allowed the Runnin’ Lopes to score a single run on two hits in the first inning. After that, Degano shut down the Runnin’ Lopes while not allowing a hit, while striking out nine. In fact, the Surrey, British Columbia, pitcher allowed just three base runners the final six innings.

While Degano was sizzling in the circle, the Cougar bats were clicking in getting clutch base hits in scoring their four runs. WNCC started the hitting early in the first inning as Katie Groves smacked a run-scoring double, and Alyssa Hickey had a run-scoring single.

WNCC added two more runs in the sixth inning as Hickey, Pearson and Megan Burditt each had singles in the inning for the win.

On Saturday, the Cougars had some bad luck in going through pool play with a 1-2 record. Against Colby, the Cougars managed just three hits as freshman Casey Simpson took the loss in the circle. The Cougars were paced offensively by Hickey with a 3-for-2 game.

WNCC rebounded against York College as Garner tossed a no hitter, allowing just two base runners on errors. Garner struck out six in facing 23 batters.

Offensively, the Cougars scored their only two runs in the seventh inning as Brenda Hearn led off with a single. Pounds followed with a one-out single to score pinch runner Jaclyn Bourdon. Pounds later scored on Atencio’s second hit of the game.

WNCC finished pool play with a heart-breaking 4-3 loss to Doane College. WNCC scored three times in the second inning on five errors by the Doane players. WNCC couldn’t hold the lead as the Tigers scored twice in the fourth and fifth inning for the win.

Degano took the loss in the circle, striking out nine batters and allowing six hits.

Offensively, the Cougars finished with just three hits, all singles from Pearson, Sofia Gomez and Hagen.

WNCC, 6-2 during the fall season, will be back in action this weekend when they head to the Triple Crown tournament in Ft. Collins, Colo. Saturday’s action will see WNCC facing Montana State-Billings at 10:30 a.m., Colorado School of Mines at 12:30 p.m., and Chadron State at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, the Cougars will face Metro State at 12:30 p.m. and Regis University at 2:30 p.m.

WNCC women's soccer picks up two wins in tournament

BOULDER, Colo. -- The Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team picked up a pair of wins in the University of Colorado tournament on Saturday.

The Cougar women earned a 3-1 win over the University of Colorado-White team and then shutout Colorado of School of Mines. The Cougars now have to wait until 5 p.m. to see if they are one of the teams that will make the bracket portion of the tournament, which would give the Cougars an evening contest on Saturday.

The Cougars opened the scoring against Colorado-White as Andrea Ardito scored with 7:28 into the first half. Terri Huntington made it 2-0 before halftime as the sophomore from Bluffdale, Utah, scored in the 34^th minute.

The Cougars pushed the lead to 3-0 as Shaylee Williams netted a goal, before CU scored in the 67^th minutes. Ana Jacobo collected three assists in the contest, while Scottsbluff’s Laura Abbott had one assist.

WNCC had seven shots on goal, while Andrea Burger collected five saves while in net for the Cougars.

The second match was a little bit tighter as both teams settled for a 0-0 tie after one half. WNCC then broke the ice as Jamie Gastelle took a pass from Jacobo and launched it into the back of the net. From there the Cougars defense stepped up in shutting out Colorado School of Mines.

Huntington recorded three saves in net.

WNCC Cougar volleyball team win another tournament, go to 31-2 on the season

Action photos of day three can be found at wncccougars.albumpost.com

The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team continues cruising along after capturing another tournament title, sweeping through the Wyo-Braska Shootout after topping Miles Community College to finish the tournament unblemished.

The Cougars, however, looked far from spectacular as they beat the Pioneers 25-12, 25-17, 25-15, committing several serving errors throughout the match.

“I am not really happy with the way we played in the tournament. We still have a lot of work to do. Yeah, we are 31-2, but that doesn’t mean anything to us,” first-year coach Giovana Melo said. “We missed a lot of serves and we missed a lot of hits. We missed a lot of things on all the fundamental thing. To me, it wasn’t just the serves [today], it was everything that we did. We just didn’t play well at all.

“It seems that we walk on the court and then decide when we want to play and that is something that we need to learn how to do.”

The Cougars, 31-2, now have 10 days off before their next competition slated for Sept. 30 against McCook Community College. Melo said the break will help refresh the Cougars intensity as they can concentrate on areas of the game that need work on.

“We are going to practice hard this next week and it is good for them to have a little time off to get their heads cleared and the come back and focus in again. We have some big tournaments coming up with some good teams that we still have to play, and if we don’t get better, we are not going to keep winning.”

Saturday, though, was a contest that was luke warm for Melo, as the Cougars let Miles hang around in all three games.

In the opening game, the Pioneers sliced the lead to 7-6 and trailed 10-8 before the Cougars started to put things together on three service points by Brook Bloomenkamp. WNCC widened the lead to 17-9 on two Gregner Quinones points and cruised to the first-game win, despite committing five service errors.

The second game was just as tight in the early going with both teams knotted at 7-7. Freshman Naomi Flinders then took over, serving four points with kills by Fatima Balza and Cami Weimer for an 11-7 lead.

The Pioneers fought back, trimming the lead to 18-16. Flinders then served five straight points to give the Cougars a 23-16 lead, followed a Weimer kill that closed out the game 25-17.

Miles quickly came out in game three with plenty of passion, assuming a 3-0 lead. Balza stopped the early scoring run with a kill and then served six points to put the Cougars up 7-3.

The Pioneers kept battling, slicing the lead t5o 15-10 on a Cougar missed serve. But the Cougars depth was too much for the Pioneers as Flinders added two more service points, and Nayka Benitez finished off Miles with an ace serve.

Balza finished the contest with 12 kills, eight points, three aces and two digs; while Kaleinani Kabalis had 11 kills, seven points and three digs. Also for the Cougars, Flinders paced the Cougars with 11 points and also had 10 set assists, followed by Sabina Piegza with 26 set assists, three points and three digs; Benitez with four points and 14 digs; Bloomenkamp with three points and five kills; Quinones with four points; Weimer with four kills; and Palamo Alvarez with three kills.

Other scores in the tournament saw Northwest College top Seward County in three straight games 25-20, 26-24, 28-26, and Casper topple McCook Community College 25-13, 25-18, 25-14.

WNCC wins two matches in second day of Wyo-Braska Shootout

Photos available to view at wncccougars.albumpost.com

Western Nebraska Community College’s Kaleinani Kabalis pounded home 29 kills in two matches and the Cougars picked up their 30^th win of the season by sweeping past Northwest College and Williston State College in day two of the Wyo-Braska Shootout at Cougar Palace.

The Cougars put on a dazzling hitting show against Northwest Wyoming as Kabalis had 15 kills and sophomore Fatima Balza finished with 16 in the 25-9, 25-14, 25-18 win over the Trappers.

Kabalis finished with 14 kills against Williston State as the Cougars earned a 25-20, 25-12, 25-15 win over the Tetons. That win gave the Cougars win No. 30, which was the 12^th straight year WNCC has won 30 wins dating back to the 1997 season.

Kabalis, the freshman from Hilo, Hawaii, said this year’s team has plenty of good hitters, but it takes good passing to set up the multitude of hitters.

“We have to be able to pass to be able to hit,” she said. “The only way we can play our game is when serve tough and pass. I think we didn’t do that well in serving [today], but we did on passing.”

Kabalis said they can be even better, and that is something that the opponents probably don’t want to hear.

“We have to play our game to be the best that we can be,” she said. “We know how good we are and we know what we can do and what we can accomplish. Right now we are really good, but I think we can be even better. We just have to keep practicing hard and thinking though.

“We have to learn from our mistakes and just practice good habits, not bad habits. We need to practice the way we are going to play in a game. Practice makes perfect.”

Friday, the Cougars flashed periods of greatness and then signs of not do great play. For the most part, though, the Cougars were on the top of their game, and it all started early against Northwest Wyoming.

In the first game, it was the Cougars domination from the service line that paid off as Gregner Quinones quickly started the Cougars to a 3-0 lead. Minutes later, Brooke Bloomenkamp served up five points behind two kills from Paloma Alvarez and a block and kill from Balza for a 16-5 lead.

WNCC kept going as Kabalis tallied three kills and two service points to finish off the first game victory.

Games two and three were a little bit tighter as Siqueira made adjustments and pushed the Cougars. Game two was back and forth until WNCC took a 12-8 lead behind two service points by Nayka Benitez. Later, Quinones served three points for a 17-10 lead. WNCC added to the lead as Balza served twice for a 20-11 lead and the Cougars cruised to the win.

Quinones started game three with three service points for a quick 3-0 lead in favor of the Cougars. Northwest Wyoming fought back, slicing the lead to one, 13-12. WNCC fought back as Kabalis hammered home two clutch kills for a 16-13 lead. WNCC added to the lead rotations later as they cruised to the 20-18 win.

Balza, besides her match-leading 16 kills, also had three points and four blocks, while Kabalis added two block, seven digs, 10 points and three aces to her 15 kills.

Also for the Cougars, Quinones had eight points and three digs; Sabina Piegza had two points, four digs and 33 assists; Paulina Piegza had seven kills; Alvarez had seven kills, three digs and two blocks; Bloomenkamp had two kills, five points and eight digs; and Benitez had 13 digs, two aces and five points.

Against Williston State, the Cougars struggled early, trailing the Tetons 16-14 at one point thanks to five service errors. WNCC rebounded, however, as Bloomenkamp served three points to push the Cougars up 18-16 and went on to win 25-20.

Game two was all WNCC as Balza served the Cougars out to a 4-1 lead before they stretched the lead to 20-10 on a Kabalis kill and service point. WNCC ended up winning on a Naomi Flinder service point.

Game three was close to start as both teams were knotted at 4-4. Then Benitez changed things in a heartbeat with six straight points, including three ace serves and three Cami Weimer kills to push the lead to 12-4.

Kabalis added seven digs, two blocks and two points to go with her 14 kills. Also for WNCC, Balza had seven kills, four blocks and six points; Quinones had five points and seven digs; Paulina Piegza had four kills; Sabina Piegza had five kills, two blocks, four points and 23 set assists; Weimer had two kills, two blocks and three digs; Benitez had 12 digs, eight points and four aces; and Flinders had three points.

Action in the tournament will conclude today with WNCC facing Miles Community College at 10 a.m. at Cougar Palace. Eastern Wyoming College will be in action twice today at Torrington, Wyo., facing Williston State at 10 a.m. and Colby at noon.

Other scores in the tournament include Sheridan defeating Colby 25-11, 25-14, 25-20; Casper taking down Williston 25-20, 25-22, 25-18; Northwest Wyoming beating Williston 25-16, 25-9, 25-17; Northeastern Colorado defeating Sheridan 25-15, 25-17, 25-20; Northeastern Colorado defeating Casper 24-26, 29-27, 25-14, 25-22; Seward County beating Sheridan 26-24, 25-17, 25-9; Northwest Wyoming defeating North Platte 25-13, 25-16, 25-10; Seward County beating Miles City 25-10, 25-16, 25-12; Northeastern Colorado beating Laramie County 25-13, 22-25, 25-15, 25-16; Eastern Wyoming beating McCook 25-20, 25-20, 25-17; North Platte taking care of Trinidad State 25-22, 25-19, 27-25; Colby defeating Laramie County 15-25, 25-15, 24-26, 25-19; 17-15; Trinidad State beating Miles City 20-10, 25-21, 25-17; Seward County defeating McCook 25-20, 25-11, 25-12; Colby taking care of North Platte 23-25, 23-25, 25-23, 25-19, 15-10; Eastern Wyoming beating Trinidad State 16-25, 25-17, 27-25, 25-18; and Laramie County beating McCook 25-13, 25-17, 25-17.

WNCC takes down Northwest to open second day of Wyo-Braska tournament

Tournament photos available at wncccougars.albumpost.com

Former Western Nebraska Community College teammates Giovana Melo and Flavia Siqueira met on the sidelines as their respectful teams did battle in the second day of the Wyo-Braska Shootout. In the end, it was Melo’s Cougars that turned the trick on Siqueira’s Northwest College Trappers in straight games 25-9, 25-14, 25-18 to improve to 29-2 on the season.

The Cougars put on a dazzling hitting show as sophomore Fatima Balza finished with 16 kills and freshman Kaleinani Kabalis tallied 15 in the win.

In the first game, however, it was the Cougars domination from the service line that paid off as Gregner Quinones quickly started the Cougars to a 3-0 lead. Minutes later, Brooke Bloomenkamp served up five points behind two kills from Paloma Alvarez and a block and kill from Balza for a 16-5 lead.

WNCC kept going as Kabalis tallied three kills and two service points to finish off the first game victory.

Games two and three were a little bit tighter as Siqueira made adjustments and pushed the Cougars. Game two was back and forth until WNCC took a 12-8 lead behind two service points by Nayka Benitez. Later, Quinones served three points for a 17-10 lead. WNCC added to the lead as Balza served twice for a 20-11 lead and the Cougars cruised to the win.

Quinones started game three with three service points for a quick 3-0 lead in favor of the Cougars. Northwest Wyoming fought back, slicing the lead to one, 13-12. WNCC fought back as Kabalis hammered home two clutch kills for a 16-13 lead. WNCC added to the lead rotations later as they cruised to the 20-18 win.

Balza, besides her match-leading 16 kills, also had three points and four blocks, while Kabalis added two block, seven digs, 10 points and three aces to her 15 kills.

Also for the Cougars, Quinones had eight points and three digs; Sabina Piegza had two points, four digs and 33 assists; Paulina Piegza had seven kills; Alvarez had seven kills, three digs and two blocks; Bloomenkamp had two kills, five points and eight digs; and Benitez had 13 digs, two aces and five points.

WNCC will be in action later tonight when they face Williston State College at 6 p.m. The Cougars will wrap up the Wyo-Braska tournament Saturday when they face Miles Community College at 10 a.m.

WNCC wins three matches in first day of Wyo-Braska Shootout

It’s going to feel strange today when Western Nebraska Community College coach Giovana Melo and Northwest College coach Flavia Siqueira face each other in the second day of the Wyo-Braska Shootout.

The two first-year head coaches for their respectful teams, along with WNCC assistant coach Nicole Gonzalez, were teammates for the Cougars in 2001 when they went 57-5 and finished third in the nation. Now, all coaches will square off against each as coaches instead of players, at 10 a.m. today at Cougar Palace.

Melo and Siqueira led their respectful teams to three wins in the first day of the Shootout on Thursday, and both said it will be strange when they face each other for the first time.

“It is going to be something different because we played with each other [at WNCC] and we played against each other [in Brazil], so it will be different coaching against each other,” Melo said about coaching her long-time college teammate. “I think it will be just a great match. They have a good team and I wish her good luck. I think whatever happens on the court, happens on the court and off the court is something completely different. I am going to treat her as well as I treat other coaches and any other team. It will be a tough match [today] because she has a good team.”

Siqueira, however, will be wearing red instead of the blue and gold that she wore when she starred for the Cougars. She did say that there it feels great to be back.

“Emotionally for me, it feels great to be back and knowing that I am back home, seeing the people I miss. Giovana has always been great,” she said. “It will be a very competitive game, I can tell you that much. Our goal is to play up to their level and have a good match. That is all we came here for. I am excited for the morning.

The Trappers enter today’s competition with an 18-6 record and Siqueira said they have to be patient in order to come out on top over her former team.

“Patience,” she said. “They can come and hit the ball hard at times and we have to be focused and say, ‘hey, good for them, but let’s do what we do best.’ That is play defense and put the ball away smartly.”

WNCC enters the second day with a record of 28-2 after breezing to wins against Casper College 25-16, 25-10, 25-13; Sheridan College 25-10, 25-12, 25-12; and Colby Community College 25-10, 25-8, 25-15. Northwest also claimed three wins, but they had a tougher go of it, defeating Colby 25-23, 25-19, 25-23; McCook Community College 25-11, 25-15, 25-10; and then Trinidad State Junior College 25-20, 25-12, 25-18.

Melo was pleased with how her team played today, especially with the serving that kept their opponents off balance with powerful jump serves and floaters that die just inside the hitting line.

“We did a pretty good job. Every one of our players got in and did their job. We got better today,” Melo said. “We have been serving well and if we can go on runs, we can get a lot of points and stop the other teams. That is the thing that we have been working on, to keep serving tough and making good serves.”

Siquiera has also pleased, despite playing short-handed after some injuries hit them earlier this week.

“I don’t think we played to the best of our ability. We had our best hitter sitting on the bench [Thabata Galvao], who got injured a couple days ago. Our outside captain became a middle this morning and our rightside became an outside, so if you look at that, our play was good, but there were several times they were not up to what I expect them to be. “

WNCC flexed its depth while showing why they are the No. 2 team in the country with a dominating performance. The Cougars received a stiff test from Casper, a team that also competed at last year’s national championship, in the first game and then cruised throughout the tournament.

Paulina Piegza paced the Cougars in the contest with 12 kills and three blocks. But, it wasn’t just Piegza doing the hitting, it was a team effort. Kaleinani Kabalis hammered home nine kills, followed by Fatiba Balza and Paloma Alvarez each with seven, and Cami Weimer with five.

Kabalis, besides her nine kills, also finished with 11 digs, three aces, nine points and three blocks. Also for WNCC, Nayka Benitez had 13 digs, four aces, and eight points; Sabina Piegza had 35 set assists; Balza had three blocks, seven points and two aces; and Quinones had six points.

WNCC was just as dominating in its second match against Sheridan as Balza finished with 12 points, nine kills, three blocks and four digs. Also for the Cougars against Sheridan, Benitez had eight digs, three points and three aces; Kabalis had five kills and seven digs; Paulina Piegza had nine kills; Quinones had 10 points and five points; and Sabina Piegza had two blocks, seven points and 28 set assists.

The Cougars finished off the first day with an all-around team effort where everyone contributed in some fashion in the win. Kabalis led the team with a double-double, collecting 12 kills, 16 points, 1 solo b lock, three aces and five digs.

Balza and Paulina Piegza each contributed seven kills. Balza also had four blocks, four aces and 10 points. Piegza added two blocks.

Also For WNCC, Sabina Piegza had 27 set assists; Benitez finished with three blocks, one ace and seven digs; Cami Weimer hauled in one kill, one block and one dig’ Whitney Roth had one block’ Quinones had eight points and two digs; Naomi Flinders had one ace and 11 set assists; Gabriela Aviles collected one ace and four points’ and Paulina Alvarez finished with three kills and one dig.

Other first-day scores in the tournament saw Sheridan defeat McCook 25-16, 25-10, 25-10; Casper over Trinidad State 25-14, 25-17, 25-9; Casper over Colby 25-23, 26-24, 25-18; Sheridan over Trinidad 25-17, 25-14, 21-25, 18-25, 16-14; Laramie County over Williston State 12-25, 25-16, 25-17, 24-26, 15-13’ Northeastern Junior College over Miles Community College 25-15, 25-10, 25-12; Seward County defeat Laramie County 25-15, 23-25, 25-15, 25-20; Williston State over Miles 27-25, 25-15; 25-13; North Platte over Laramie County 25-18, 22-24, 25-9, 25-21; Seward County over Northeastern Junior College 23-25, 25-27, 25-22, 25-14, 15-10; North Platte over Miles 24-20, 25-14, 25-20; Seward County over Eastern Wyoming 25-20, 25-21, 25-21; North Platte over Eastern Wyoming 25-22, 19-25, 25-22, 25-18; and Northeastern Colorado over Eastern Wyoming 25-14, 25-23, 25-8.

Today’s Schedule

At Scottsbluff

10 a.m. – WNCC vs. Northwest Wyoming, Colby vs. Sheridan; Noon – Williston State vs. Casper College; 2 p.m. – Williston State vs. Northwest Wyoming; 4 p.m. -- Northeastern Colorado vs. Sheridan College; 6 p.m. – WNCC vs. Williston State, Northeastern Colorado vs. Casper College; 8 p.m. – Seward County vs. Sheridan College, North Platte vs. Northwest Wyoming.

At Torrington, Wyo.

10 a.m. – Seward County vs. Miles City, Northeastern Colorado vs. Laramie County; Noon – Eastern Wyoming vs. McCook, Trinidad State vs. North Platte; 2 p.m. – Colby vs. Laramie County, Trinidad State vs. Miles City; 4 p.m. – Colby vs. North Platte, Seward County vs. McCook; 6 p.m. – Eastern Wyoming vs. Trinidad State, McCook vs. Laramie County; 8 p.m. – McCook vs. Miles City.

WNCC sweeps Casper in first match of Wyo-Braska tournament

The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team opened the Wyo-Braska Shootout with a sweep over Casper College 25-16, 25-10, 25-13.

Paulina Piegza paced the Cougars with 12 kills and three blocks. But, it wasn’t just Piegza doing the hitting, it was a team effort. Kaleinani Kabalis hammered home nine kills, followed by Fatiba Balza and Paloma Alvarez each with seven, and Cami Weimer with five.

The first game, however, was a dog fight between two teams that competed at the national tournament a year ago. Both teams were tied at 14 until Nayka Benitez served three straight aces to put the Cougars up 18-14. Later, Gering’s Brooke Blomenkamp brought the score to 24-15 with some clutch serves and the 25-16 win.

The second game, WNCC jumped out to a 6-1 lead on pin-point serving by Gregner Quinones and Fatiba Balza. Casper cut the deficit to 9-4 at one time, but that was as close as the T-Birds could get.

The Cougars flashed their depth in the third game as well. Balza served up three points, including two aces, and Kabalis had four service points to push WNCC ahead 10-3.

Kabalis, besides her nine kills, also finished with 11 digs, three aces, nine points and three blocks. Also for WNCC, Nayka Benitez had 13 digs, four aces, and eight points; Sabina Piegza had 35 set assists; Balza had three blocks, seven points and two aces; and Quinones had six points.

The other noon matches at Cougar Palace saw Sheridan defeat McCook 25-17, 25-22, 25-21. In a match at Torrington, Laramie County Community College won a thriller in five games 12-25 25-16, 25-13, 24-16, 15-13. Eastern Wyoming College also had a battle before falling to Seward County Community College 25-20, 25-21, 25-21.

WNCC will have two more matches today as they face Sheridan at 4 p.m. and Colby Community College at 8 p.m.

WNCC scores 11 goals in defeating Northwest Wyoming Monday evening

Morgan Wall, Lazaro Torres and Raul Sanchez each scored two goals Monday, and the Cougars quickly erased Sunday’s nightmare match with an 11-2 win over Northwest College at Landers Soccer Complex.

On Sunday, the Cougars out shot Cloud County Community College 14-4 but came up short on the score board falling 3-0.

Monday, things were reversed as the Cougars scored 11 goals and were making goals at an alarming rate in registering the 11-2 win over the Northwest College, out-shooting the Trappers 21-5.

“[Sunday] we were just having a day where we couldn’t get them in. We were having a bad day,” Torres said. “ We have been practicing our shooting. We have a shooting drill we do before every game, and I think we will pick it up in future games.”

Whatever the shooting drill was, it paid dividends Monday evening as the Cougars were hitting shots at an alarming rate and it didn’t take them to get things rolling. Austin Albers started things by taking a pass from Tony Rocha to score less than a minute into the match.

WNCC added three more goals in the first seven minutes of the match. Rocha netted the second goal off an Luis Anaya assist with 41:01 to play. A few seconds later, Austin Roy scored off an assist by Mark Zigray.

Morgan Wall made it 4-0 with 38:07 to play off an assist by Nikko Ouzounis.

“If we pick up the pace in every game like we did in this game, this team does a pretty good job,” Torres said. “We just need to play with that intensity every day and we might have a chance to have a winning record this year.”

WNCC wasn’t through scoring as they took a 6-0 lead into intermission. Torres scored the fifth goal as he headed the ball into the back of the net off an assist by Wall. Then, with 15 minutes to play in the half, Alliance’s Raul Sanchez, who is listed as a goalkeeper, took a long pass from goalkeeper Cesar Bazana, bounced the ball off his chest and kicked the ball into the net.

Rocha scored his second goal eight minutes into the second half for a 7-0 lead.

Northwest avoided the shut out as Dusty Curtis scored with 32:40 to play in the match. Northwest would score a second goal with 6:20 to play as Tylan Jones took a free kick and went high into the net.

WNCC, however, had four more goals between the Trappers scores. Torres hit his second goal of the match off an assist by Roy with 27:33 to play. Wall added his second goal off a pass from Jesus Duque.

Sanchez added his second goal with 12:31 to play as Alliance’s Tanner Herien received the assist to make the score 10-1.

Freshman Nathan Southard, of North Platte, picked up the Cougar’s final score with 8:19 to play off an assist by Gustavo Rincon.

The Northwest win was definitely a match that Cougars needed to get its confidence up after Sunday’s disappointing loss against Cloud County.

In that match, the Cougars definitely had many, many opportunities to score goals all day long. Right off the bat, the Cougars Albers and Roy had golden scoring opportunities, but couldn’t convert.

Then, it was Cloud County’s Alberto Navel-Gimeno who netted the first goal as he scored just seven minutes into the match. Ten minutes later, Enrique Becerra put Cloud County up 2-0 as he hammered a shot in the top right corner with 27:04 left in the half.

WNCC, however, continued hammering away at shots on goal. The Cougars had a prime scoring opportunity with 10 minutes to go in the half as Duque delivered a pass to Torres, who hammered one to the goal. Cloud goal keeper Jose Ocampo went vertical and with one arm extended, pushed the ball outside the frame of the net.

Cloud County added another goal to take a 2-0 lead into halftime and then added an insurance goal in the second half as Navel-Gimeno netted his second score of the match.

The Cougars, who had seven scoring opportunities in the first half, had nine more in the second half. WNCC’s offensive attack started early as Albers missed on three shots and then Tony Rocha had a shot that just missed.

The Cougar men (4-4) will be back in action Sunday when they will face the University of Colorado Gold team in Boulder, Colo.

Morgan Wall, Lazaro Torres and Raul Sanchez each scored two goals Monday, and the Cougars quickly erased Sunday’s nightmare match with an 11-2 win over Northwest College at Landers Soccer Complex.

On Sunday, the Cougars out shot Cloud County Community College 14-4 but came up short on the score board falling 3-0.

Monday, things were reversed as the Cougars scored 11 goals and were making goals at an alarming rate in registering the 11-2 win over the Northwest College, out-shooting the Trappers 21-5.

“[Sunday] we were just having a day where we couldn’t get them in. We were having a bad day,” Torres said. “ We have been practicing our shooting. We have a shooting drill we do before every game, and I think we will pick it up in future games.”

Whatever the shooting drill was, it paid dividends Monday evening as the Cougars were hitting shots at an alarming rate and it didn’t take them to get things rolling. Austin Albers started things by taking a pass from Tony Rocha to score less than a minute into the match.

WNCC added three more goals in the first seven minutes of the match. Rocha netted the second goal off an Luis Anaya assist with 41:01 to play. A few seconds later, Austin Roy scored off an assist by Mark Zigray.

Morgan Wall made it 4-0 with 38:07 to play off an assist by Nikko Ouzounis.

“If we pick up the pace in every game like we did in this game, this team does a pretty good job,” Torres said. “We just need to play with that intensity every day and we might have a chance to have a winning record this year.”

WNCC wasn’t through scoring as they took a 6-0 lead into intermission. Torres scored the fifth goal as he headed the ball into the back of the net off an assist by Wall. Then, with 15 minutes to play in the half, Alliance’s Raul Sanchez, who is listed as a goalkeeper, took a long pass from goalkeeper Cesar Bazana, bounced the ball off his chest and kicked the ball into the net.

Rocha scored his second goal eight minutes into the second half for a 7-0 lead.

Northwest avoided the shut out as Dusty Curtis scored with 32:40 to play in the match. Northwest would score a second goal with 6:20 to play as Tylan Jones took a free kick and went high into the net.

WNCC, however, had four more goals between the Trappers scores. Torres hit his second goal of the match off an assist by Roy with 27:33 to play. Wall added his second goal off a pass from Jesus Duque.

Sanchez added his second goal with 12:31 to play as Alliance’s Tanner Herien received the assist to make the score 10-1.

Freshman Nathan Southard, of North Platte, picked up the Cougar’s final score with 8:19 to play off an assist by Gustavo Rincon.

The Northwest win was definitely a match that Cougars needed to get its confidence up after Sunday’s disappointing loss against Cloud County.

In that match, the Cougars definitely had many, many opportunities to score goals all day long. Right off the bat, the Cougars Albers and Roy had golden scoring opportunities, but couldn’t convert.

Then, it was Cloud County’s Alberto Navel-Gimeno who netted the first goal as he scored just seven minutes into the match. Ten minutes later, Enrique Becerra put Cloud County up 2-0 as he hammered a shot in the top right corner with 27:04 left in the half.

WNCC, however, continued hammering away at shots on goal. The Cougars had a prime scoring opportunity with 10 minutes to go in the half as Duque delivered a pass to Torres, who hammered one to the goal. Cloud goal keeper Jose Ocampo went vertical and with one arm extended, pushed the ball outside the frame of the net.

Cloud County added another goal to take a 2-0 lead into halftime and then added an insurance goal in the second half as Navel-Gimeno netted his second score of the match.

The Cougars, who had seven scoring opportunities in the first half, had nine more in the second half. WNCC’s offensive attack started early as Albers missed on three shots and then Tony Rocha had a shot that just missed.

The Cougar men (4-4) will be back in action Sunday when they will face the University of Colorado Gold team in Boulder, Colo.

WNCC women notch win over Cloud County 5-1 in action Sunday

The Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer players realize that Sunday’s match with Cloud County Community College wasn’t their best as they defeated the Thunderbirds 5-1.

The Cougars, 4-3-1, out shot Cloud County 13-2, but could have had a lot more goals as the WNCC women dominated play from start to finish.

“Our team did okay for the team we played against,” sophomore Terri Huntington said. “We have a long ways to go though and we need to pick it up a lot.”

WNCC’s Alicia Ropkin echoed Huntingon’s observation of the game.

“We played a fair game with good possession, but we needed to take advantage of the gaps in the defense,” the sophomore said. “We need to play to our full ability even against lesser skilled opponents.”

The one thing the contest did was give the Cougar women an idea what they need to work on before next month’s regional tournament.

“We missed a lot of open shots to make the score better, but it was a nice game to see what we have to improve on,” sophomore Andrea Ardito said. “

Cloud County, however, made things interesting early, scoring the opening goal with just under two minutes gone in the match. Beatriz Castillo scored as she took a rebound off of Cougar goal keeper Andrea Burger for the 1-0 lead.

The goal woke the Cougar offense up as they scored four times in the first half. Jamie Gastille started things when she fed Ashley Quintana a perfect pass, who found the back of the net with the tying goal with 37:18 to play.

The Cougars took the lead 10 minutes later as LeeAnna Paxton scored off an assist by Keah Brost. Four minutes later, Quintana delivered Gastille a pass to put the Cougars up 3-1.

WNCC added one more goal before half as Shaylee Williams earned the assist on a goal by Ana Jacobo with 4:27 to play.

The Cougars added just one goal in the second half as Huntington delivered a pass to Taylor Johns with 16:43 to play.

The Cougars managed 12 shots on goal in the first half and nine in the second half to out shot the Thunderbirds 12-2.

Cloud County goal keeper Kadie Kutschka registered 13 saves, while Burger had just one save.

WNCC coach Todd Rasnic said he will take the win, but wasn’t overly excited with the performance.

“I was, to say the least, disappointed with the performance of the ladies. The ladies certainly had many, many opportunities to put the ball away and didn’t do it,” he said. “We were just not on our shooting today. Hopefully, it is not a cycle. We have a big tournament coming up this weekend at CU and we will see how the ladies bounce back after this game and put together some high pressure matches.”

Another reason for the scoring woes, Rasnic said, is that he played got everybody into the match in some capacity.

“We did do a lot of different things in the match,” he said. “We played a lot of our subs today and got everybody a chance to play in the game. So, that had something to do with it as well.”

WNCC will next be in action Friday through Sunday at the CU Boulder tournament, where they will play the University of Nebraska Club team among others.

WNCC men fall to Cloud County in soccer action, host Northwest Wyoming on Monday

The Western Nebraska Community College men’s soccer team out shot Cloud County Community College 14-3 Sunday afternoon at the Landers Complex, but it wasn’t enough as the Thunderbirds won the battle on the scoreboard in registering a 3-0 win over the Cougars.

WNCC coach Todd Rasnic said it is becoming old in looking at the shooting disparities.

“We had 14 shots on goal and you can’t win soccer matches unless you are finishing your opportunities,” he said. “We certainly weren’t doing that today and we haven’t done it in the last couple of games. We have out shot our opponents and quite honestly until it changes, we are going to have a difficult go of it.”

The Cougars definitely had many, many opportunities to score goals and they had shots all day long at the net. Right off the bat, the Cougars Austin Albers and Austin Roy had golden scoring opportunities, but couldn’t convert.

Then, it was Cloud County’s Alberto Navel-Gimeno who netted the first goal as he scored just seven minutes into the match. Ten minutes later, Enrique Becerra put Cloud County up 2-0 as he hammered a shot in the top right corner with 27:04 left in the half.

WNCC, however, continued hammering away at shots on goal. The Cougars had a prime scoring opportunity with 10 minutes to go in the half as Jesus Duque delivered a pass to Lazaro Torres, who hammered one to the goal. Cloud goal keeper Jose Ocampo went vertical and with one arm extended, pushed the ball outside the frame of the net.

The Cougars, who had seven scoring opportunities in the first half, had nine more in the second half. WNCC’s offensive attack started early as Albers missed on three shots and then Tony Rocha had a shot that just missed.

WNCC also had one shot that that hit the front of the goal and bounce back into play, and then had three shots on goal with under eight minutes to play.

In the meantime, the Thunderbirds added another goal at the 14:13 mark as Navel-Gimeno scored on a shot that sailed over the head of Cougar goal keeper Juan Sanchez.

WNCC had five corner kicks to Cloud County’s three. Cloud County’s goal keepers Ocampo and Julio Tovelin had 12 saves compared to just one for WNCC’s goal keepers Sanchez and Cesar Bazana.

Rasnic said that finishing goals will be an emphasize in practice this week.

“I think they will improve. We have a lot of freshmen that are learning the ropes out here and learning to play in this type of system,” he said. “We are continuing to be hopeful that they will step up to the challenge and start finishing well. The other team had four shots on goal and put three of them in the back of the net. We have to be a team that performs that way. Unfortunately we weren’t that team today. We will keep working and will do some finishing work this week.”

The Cougar men (3-4) will be back in action Monday as they host Northwest (Wyo.) College beginning at 5 p.m. at the Landers Soccer Complex.

“We have a game [Monday] against Northwest Wyoming so hopefully we will see some of those things corrected by tomorrow evening,” Rasnic said. “Hopefully we will get a good crowd for that game and perform to the level that we should be performing.”

WNCC softball stops Chadron State, Wyoming in Fall Classic

The Western Nebraska Community College softball team finished the WNCC Fall Classic in dominating fashion Saturday night, with two impressive wins against Chadron State College 7-0 and the University of Wyoming 9-1.

The Cougars earlier that day defeated Weber State University 8-0.

Kelsey Garner was simply dominating in the win against Chadron State. The NJCAA all-American who set nearly all the pitching records a year ago, struck out 10 batters in 5 1/3 innings of work. In fact, Garner allowed just two base runners by hitting a batter in the fourth inning and then allowed a single in the bottom of the sixth, just before time limit was called.

But, while Garner was sensational in the circle, the Cougars young defense and explosive offense was scoring runs left and right. WNCC plated two runs in the first inning as Adena Hagen led things off with single and scored on a Casey Simpson double to right centerfield. Simpson came in to score on a Alyssa Hickey single.

WNCC added single runs in the second and fourth innings. In the second, Karleen Crone walked and came around to score on Hagen's single. In the fourth, Alex Voci walked and scored on Garner's single to left field for a 4-0 lead.

The Cougars put the game away in the fifth inning by plating three runs. Katie Groves started things by drawing a walk. Pinch runner Tonya Atencio later scored on a double by Hickey. WNCC added singles by Voci and Brittany Chacon in the inning for their seven runs.

Hickey paced the team with a 3-for-4 performance, including a double and a run scored. Hagen went 2-for-2 with two RBIs and two walks, while Simpson finished with a double.

The Cougars were just as dominating in their final Classic game as Stephanie Townsend tossed a 2-hitter in getting the shutout against Wyoming. The freshman from Roosevelt, Utah, struck out five in the win.

WNCC pounded out 10 hits in the win. The Cougars got things started with two runs in the second inning. Hannah Strauss led off by drawing a walk and scored on a Jaclyn Bourdon single. Atencio later singled to score Chacon.

The Cougars went up 3-0 in teh fourth inning. Strauss led off by blasting a double in a stiff win that hit the top of the fence. Pinch runner Mandy Pounds later scored on a Bourdon single.

WNCC put the game away in the fifth inning by plating six runs on five hits and two walks. WNCC started off by loading the bases and then had two straight singles by Crone and Sofia Gomez. WNCC also got run-scoring singles by Bourdon and Atencio.

Bourdon paced the team with a 3-for-3 performance, including two runs scored and two RBIs. Atencio and Crone each had two hits as well. Atencio added two RBIs.

WNCC volleyball turns back Pratt, Garden City in second day of tournament

The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team made a clean sweep of the Pizza Hut Invite in Sterling, Colo., Saturday by claiming straight-game wins over Pratt Community College and Garden City Community College.

WNCC, after sweeping both matches on Friday, were even more impressive on Saturday. The Cougars defeated Pratt 25-12, 25-12, 25-20 before turning back Garden City 25-14. 25-9. 25-14. It was the third tournament of the season in which the No. 2 team in the country has swept through a tournament unscathed.

On Friday, the Cougars swept North Platte Community College and Colby Community College in three straight games each.

In Saturday’s opener, Paulina Piegza paced the Cougars against Pratt with eight kills and four blocks. Fatima Balza was just as impressive, recording seven kills, three blocks, and five points.

Also for WNCC, Sabina Piegza finished with 16 points, 24 set assists, and four kills; Paloma Alvarez finished with six kills, five digs and five points; Kaleinani Kabalis had three kills; Nayka Benitez had 14 digs; and Gregner Quinones had eight digs and eight points.

In the Garden City win, Balza finished with 11 kills, two blocks, four digs, nine points and three aces.

Paulina Piegza also collected double-digit with 10 kills followed Kabalis with nine kills. Kabalis also had seven digs, five points and three aces.

Also for WNCC, Sabina Piegza had 11 points, five aces, 30 set assists, and four kills; Benitez had nine digs and two aces; Quinones had seven digs, four points, and two aces; Alvarez with three kills; Whitney Roth two kills.

The Cougars return to action next weekend when they host the Wyo-Braska Shootout that begins Thursday and runs through Saturday.

WNCC volleyball turns back Pratt, Garden City in second day of tournament

The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team made a clean sweep of the Pizza Hut Invite in Sterling, Colo., Saturday by claiming straight-game wins over Pratt Community College and Garden City Community College.
WNCC, after sweeping both matches on Friday, were even more impressive on Saturday. The Cougars defeated Pratt 25-12, 25-12, 25-20 before turning back Garden City 25-14. 25-9. 25-14. It was the third tournament of the season in which the No. 2 team in the country has swept through a tournament unscathed.
On Friday, the Cougars swept North Platte Community College and Colby Community College in three straight games each.
In Saturday’s opener, Paulina Piegza paced the Cougars against Pratt with eight kills and four blocks. Fatima Balza was just as impressive, recording seven kills, three blocks, and five points.
Also for WNCC, Sabina Piegza finished with 16 points, 24 set assists, and four kills; Paloma Alvarez finished with six kills, five digs and five points; Kaleinani Kabalis had three kills; Nayka Benitez had 14 digs; and Gregner Quinones had eight digs and eight points.
In the Garden City win, Balza finished with 11 kills, two blocks, four digs, nine points and three aces.
Paulina Piegza also collected double-digit with 10 kills followed Kabalis with nine kills. Kabalis also had seven digs, five points and three aces.
Also for WNCC, Sabina Piegza had 11 points, five aces, 30 set assists, and four kills; Benitez had nine digs and two aces; Quinones had seven digs, four points, and two aces; Alvarez with three kills; Whitney Roth two kills.
The Cougars return to action next weekend when they host the Wyo-Braska Shootout that begins Thursday and runs through Saturday.

WNCC volleyball runs record to 25-2 with sweeps over Pratt, Garden City in second day of Pizza Hut Classic

The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team improved to 25-2 on the season by sweeping through the second day of the Pizza Hut Classic with wins over Pratt Community College and Garden City Community College.

In the opener, the Cougars earned a 25-12, 25-12, 25-20 win over Pratt, before dismantling Garden City 25-14, 25-9, 25-14 to finish the tournament not dropping a set.

The No. 2 ranked WNCC team will next be in action next week when they host the Wyo-Braska Shootout along with EWC Thursday through Saturday at Cougars Place.

WNCC opens fall season with 8-0 win against Weber State

The Western Nebraska Community College softball team received steller pitching performances from Kelsey Garner and Stephanie Townsend to open the fall season with a dominating 8-0 win over Weber State University in the WNCC Fall Classic at Volunteer Field in Scottsbluff.

WNCC will have two more games today in the classic against Chadron State College at 6:30 p.m. and the University of Wyoming at 8:15 p.m.

Garner, a sophomore who set nearly all of WNCC’s pitching records a year ago while leading them to the Region IX championship, threw three perfect innings, while striking out three. Townsend, a freshman from Roosevelt, Utah, finished the game in throwing four innings and giving up three hits.

While the pitching was sensational, the defense was just as solid, not allowing a Weber State runner past second base. Weber’s State’s first hit came in the top of the fifth inning.

Offensively, the Cougars flexed their hitting and quickness on the bases. The Cougars got on the scoreboard in the first inning. With two outs, Casey Simpson earned a walked and scored on a Alyssa Hickey single for a 1-0 lead.

WNCC added two more runs in the second inning. With one out, Tonya Alencio and Kelsey Garner recorded back-to-back singles. Alencio scored on Garner’s single to right field. Later that inning, Adena Hagen earned a walk and scored for a 3-0 lead.

WNCC plated a single run in the fourth inning as Brittany Chacon scored on a Karleen Crone single.

The Cougars pushed the lead to 7-0 in the sixth inning. With one out, Alyssa Hickey singled. Kelly Pearson then earned a walk. Pinch runner Alec Voci and Pearson each scored on a Tiffany Lookabill double to center field. Pincher runner Mandy Pounds scored the third run of the inning on a Crowe single for a 7-0 lead.

Hagen scored the team’s final run in the seventh inning after leading off with a single.

Hagen, a freshman from Birch Hills, Saskatchewan, finished the game going 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored. Hickey, a freshman from Boulder, Colo., went 3-for-3 with a RBI, while Crone, a freshman from Annaheim, Saskatchewan, finished with a double and two RBIs.

WNCC volleyball team claims two wins at the Pizza Hut Invite

STERLING, Colo. — Kaleinani Kabalis hammered home 29 kills as the No. 2 Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team picked up two wins Friday in the first day of the Pizza Hut Classic in Sterling, Colo.

WNCC received a bit of a scare in its tournament opener against Division II 13^th ranked North Platte Community College, but came out on top by sweeping the Knights 28-26, 25-10, 25-22.

WNCC then registered a 25-20, 25-14, 25-10 win over Colby Community College to close out the first day of action.

WNCC assistant coach Nicole Gonzales said the team needed to everything they had to get by a talented North Platte squad.

“We started slow against North Platte, but once we got going we did better,” she said. “Then, against Colby, we played a lot better and pulled it through with good serving.”

Gonzales said it got scary against North Platte, as the Knights pushed the Cougars to the limit.

In the first-set, WNCC had set point at 24-23, before North Platte came back to get set points at 24-25 and 25-26. The Cougars, however, fought back with Naomi Flinders serving the final two points to give WNCC the win.

The second set was all WNCC as the defending national champions cruised to a 25-8 win.

The third set started all WNCC's way with the Cougars taking a 11-7 lead at one time. North Platte, however, fought back, tying the set at 16-16. WNCC regrouped after a time out and pushed ahead to win 25-21, including clutch kills by Paulina Piegza, Kaleinani Kabalis and Palomo Alvarez.

Four Cougars finished above or near double figures in kills, led by Kabalis’ 15 kills. Alvarez also pounded home 11 kills, followed by Fatima Balza with nine and Paulina Piegza with eight.

Nayka Benitez and Gregner Quinones also had a good match. Quinones finished with 12 digs and eight points, while Benitez had 11 digs.

Sabina Piegzaalso added 42 set assists, seven digs, seven points and two aces.

In the win against Colby, Balza and Quinones each recorded double-doubles. Balza finished with 11 points, 11 kills and two aces, while Quinones had 12 digs, 11 points, and two aces.

Also for WNCC, Kabalis had 14 kills, nine digs and two blocks; Benitez had 11 digs; Paulina Piegza had 12 kills; and Sabina Piegza had 31 set assists.

WNCC, 23-2, will finish off the Pizza Hut Invite with two days today. The Cougars will face Pratt Community College at 9 a.m. and then Garden City Community College at 11 a.m.

Former Cougar Alison Cheney makes Colorado State basketball tea

CSU women's basketball coach Kristen Holt finalized her 2008-09 roster Friday by announcing the addition of three players.chool, and Alison Cheney, a 5-8 junior guard from Kersey who transferred from Western Nebraska Community College, were selected as walk-ons. The Rams also signed freshman Chatilla van Grinsven, a 6-2 forward from the Netherlands.

The additions give Holt 14 players for her first season as the Rams' coach. Eight are returnees - sophomore guard Bonnie Barber, senior forward Amaka Uzomah, senior forward Britney Minor, senior guard Kandy Beemer, sophomore guard Zoi Simmons, senior forward Carine Reimink, redshirt junior center Devran Tanacan and junior forward Juanise Cornell, the only player to have completed two or more seasons with the Rams.

The other players are recruits Kim Mestdagh, a freshman guard/forward from Belgium; Natalie van den Adel, a second-year freshman guard from the Netherlands; and Meghan Heimstra, a freshman forward from Silver Creek High in Longmont.

The Rams will begin practice in about five weeks. They went 4-28 overall and 0-6 in Mountain West Conference play last season with both records the worst in school history.

WNCC volleyball team defeats North Platte Community College

The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team started the Pizza Hut Invite in Sterling, Colo., off on the right foot, but it wasn't easy.

The North Platte Community College Knights, No. 13 in the NJCAA Division II poll, gave the Cougars a battle, but the No. 2 team in the nation survived in straight sets 28-26, 25-8, 25-22 to go to 22-2 on the season.

In the first-set win, the Cougars won a tight contest as each team had set points. WNCC had set points at 24-23, before North Platte came back to get set points at 24-25 and 25-26. The Cougars, however, fought back and Naomi Flinders served the final two points to give WNCC the win.

The second set was all WNCC as the defending national champions cruised to a 25-8 win.

The third set started all WNCC's way with the Cougars taking a 11-7 lead at one time. North Platte, however, fought back, tying the set at 16-16. WNCC regrouped after a time out and pushed ahead to win 25-21, including clutch kills by Paulina Piegza, Kaleinani Kabalis and Palomo Alvarez.

WNCC will be in action later tonight at 7 p.m. against Colby Community College. Then, on Saturday, they will face Pratt Community College and Garden City Community College. The games can be heard on KOSY 101.3 FM or on the Internet at www.kozy1013.com.

Revamped WNCC Fall Classic softball schedule after Friday's game washed out because of rain

The First day of the WNCC Fall Classic has been postponed because of the wet weather. The tournament will be held at Volunteer Field in Scottsbluff.

The tournament will pick up Saturday with a revamped game schedule. The Cougars will play three games on Saturday, beginning with an 8 a.m. contest against Weber State University. The Cougars will then face Chadron State College at 6:30 p.m. and then the University of Wyoming at 8:15 p.m.

Chadron State will have four games on the day. Besides the contest with WNCC, the Eagles will face Weber State at 9:45 a.m., Wyoming at 11:30 a.m. and North Platte Community College at 4:45 p.m.

Other games in the WNCC Fall Classic will see Weber State taking on North Platte at 1:15 p.m. and Wyoming meeting North Platte at 3 p.m.

WNCC softball opens fall season with home tournament this weekend

The last time the Western Nebraska Community College softball team played at Volunteer Field, they captured the Region IX championship in May.

This weekend, the Cougar softball team will be back on that same field as they host the WNCC Classic to signify the start of the fall season. Action begins Friday night and runs all day Saturday with two-year and four-year teams from Wyoming, Nebraska and Utah taking part.

WNCC coach Maria Winn-Ratliff said the focus of the tournament is to gain experience for this year’s team that features just four players back from last year’s championship team that went 54-10.

“We are not trying to focus on what the team did last year,” she said. “We are only trying to focus on what this team is capable of doing.”

The Cougars will play two games each day, beginning with Weber State University Friday at 5 p.m. WNCC will also battle the University of Wyoming at 8:30 p.m. Weber State and Wyoming will battle at 6:45 p.m.

Saturday action begins at 8 a.m. with seven games scheduled with Wyoming meeting Weber State to kick things off.

Other games include Chadron State College facing Weber State at 9:45 a.m., Chadron State meeting North Platte at 11:30 a.m., Wyoming taking on North Platte at 1:15 p.m., Chadron State facing Wyoming at 3 p.m., WNCC meeting Chadron State at 4:45 p.m., and WNCC taking on North Platte at 6:30 p.m.

Winn-Ratliff said this year’s WNCC fall classic looks to be a competitive 2-day tournament.

“Chadron just continues to get better,” she said. “I really don't know a whole lot about Weber State except that they were very good last year. Wyoming always comes to play hard and North Platte is always scrappy and finds ways to win.”

But all eyes will be on this year’s Cougar squad, which features four returners and 16 new faces to the team. Kelsey Garner, of Regina, Saskatchewan, leads the returners. Garner set practically every pitching record a year ago while being named a NJCAA all-American. The other three returners include Alec Voci and Mandy Pounds of Colorado Springs, Colo., and Lauryn Smith of Berthoud, Colo.

Five of the newcomers come from north of the border. They include Casey Simpson of Nokomis, Saskatchewan, Adena Hagen of Birch Hills, Saskatchewan, Karleen Crone of Annaheim, Saskatchewan, Christy Degano of Surrey, Britsh Columbia, and Jaclyn Bourdon, of Duck Lake, Saskatchewan.

The other members of the squad include Brenda Hearn of Tijeras, N.M., Hannah Strauss of Arvada, Colo., Megan Burditt of Las Alamos, N.M., Stephanie Townsend of Roosevelt, Utah, Tiffany Lookabill of Spokane, Wash., Alyssa Hickey of Boulder, Colo., Kelly Pearson and Tonya Alencio of Denver, Colo., Katie Groves of South Jordan, Utah, Brittany Chacon of Broomfield, Colo., and Sofia Gomez of Riverton, Utah.

Winn-Ratliff said with this many newcomers it is hard to compare teams, but the talent is there to possibly repeat as champions.

“Offensively when it all come together, I think they will be the strongest offensive team we have had at WNCC,” she said. “We are very deep all the way around and have lots of competition for each position.”

Admission for the tournament is $5 for adults and $3 for children.