The WNCC Cougars have a mission to accomplish this weekend when they compete in their 10th straight national tournament and that is to bring home a second straight national title. The road, however, will not be an easy chore for last year’s national champs, who enter the NJCAA National Tournament with an eye-popping 56-3 record.
“We are ready for nationals and I told the girls that we have to take one game and one point at a time, and that should take us a long way at the national tournament,” first year coach Giovana said. “If we play hard each point in a match and then if we win that is what we want, but if we lose and I know we played has hard as we cold, that is what I am worried about. We just need to play with heart and see what happens.”
The Cougars open play in the tournament Thursday at 10 a.m. against 38-6 Northwest Shoals College in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Then, if the No. 2 seed Cougars win, they will have face the winner of the Miami Dade College and North Idaho College Thursday evening at 5:30 p.m.
Other first round match-ups in the national tournament include Arkansas-Ft. Smith taking on Casper College and MSUWest Plains facing Salt Lake Community College at 8 a.m.; Iowa Western Community College meeting Spartanburg Methodist and Hillsborough Community College facing Frank Phillips College at noon, and San Jacinto College taking on Hutchinson Community College and Blinn College facing Temple College at 2 p.m.
Melo said she really doesn’t know a whole lot about Northwest Shoals except they were at the national tournament a year ago and have a roster filled with all Alabama players. She said she received a video tape on NW Shoals and will find out a little bit about them from that.
Northwest Shoals, while they are aren’t as tall as the Cougars, are a team they can’t take lightly. The Patriots’ tallest player is freshman Bethany Morgan, who stands 6-0. They also have three other players that stand 5-11. The Patriots are led by 5-8 setter Shannon Thompson, who ranks No. 1 in the nation in setting. Northwest Shoals head coach Angie Byrd, who tarred for Seward County Community College in the late 1990s, said the bread and butter of her team is their defense.
“Tt is all about our defensive side of the our game,” Byrd said. “We played against Hillsborough, who is also in the tournament and lost to them in four, and they had a big hitter and once we capitalized on her, We were able to shut her down a little bit. It is all about having that defensive prowess, which will help us play our game.”
The setting postion will also be vital for the Patriots as well.
WNCC also brings in an explosive squad to the tournament. Three players are either over or near 500 kills for the season, who are led by sophomore Fatima Balza, who his a handful of kills away from 600 on the season. Kaleinani Kabalis and Paulina Piegza are also nearing the 500 kill mark. Both Kabalis and Piegza are freshman.
The Cougars are also led at the net by freshman setter Sabina Piegza, who is averaging just over 10 assists a set, as well as in the back row by one of the top liberos in the nation in Nayka Benitez. Benitez has nearly 700 digs this season.
“We are a very diverse group and they take it in a good way and learn from each other,” Melo said. “They have a lot of chemistry not on the court by off the court and that is why I am so pleased with how this team has done.”
The Cougars, who won the national tournament a year ago, have won 56 matches this season, as well as being No. 1 in the nation for four weeks before falling to Miami Dade in late October.
WNCC’s other two losses came at the hands of Iowa Western back on Sept. 9 at the Columbus, Neb., Invite.
The Cougars are also 12-0 at the Mid-America Center, where the national tournament will be played, capturing all four matches a year ago, and then went 8-0 in the season-opening tournament this year.
Northwest Shoals, on the other hand, has also put together a nice season, winning their past 11 matches. Their last loss came to Wallace-Hansville in three sets.
Both squads have just one opponent in common -- Hillsborough. Northwest fell to Northwest in four sets, while the Cougars defeated them in two sets.
Northwest also faced national tournament participant Spartanburg Methodist during the season, and defeated then in two sets. WNCC has played a number of national tournament teams this year — eight teams
in fact. The Cougars are 14-3 against national tournament teams, including beating Hutchinson Commnity College and Casper three times. They also competed against West Plains, North Idaho, Salt Lake and Frank Phillips.
WNCC also defeated the No. 1 team in Division II, Kiskwaukee Community College in straight sets, which was the only defeat Kishwaukee suffered all season.
Both teams will be ready when first serve takes off Thursday morning.
“We will be ready,” Byrd said. “Western Nebraska, from what I heard, is a very good team. I think we will match up with them to gove them a pretty good game.”
The contest can be heard on KOZY 101.3 FM as well as the Internet at kozy1013.com.
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