WNCC volleyball team opens regional tournament action Friday against Otero

Paloma Alvarez never experienced the regional tournament when she played last year at Colby Community College. That is why she is excited when the NO. 2 Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team takes to the court today in its Region IX South Tournament game.

“It is very, very exciting to be going to regionals because I have never been there. This is a new thing and I am very excited for it,” the 5-10 sophomore said. “I really don’t think we even made it to regionals. This is a new experience for me and I hope we win regionals and go to nationals because that would be even a bigger thing for me.”

The Cougars, who earned the No. 1 seed in the tournament at Lamar, Colo., will Otero Junior College, who was a winner over Lamar Community College in the first round. WNCC contest is slated for an 11 a.m. first serve on Friday. The volleyball matches can be heard on KOZY, 101.3 FM and the Internet.

The other side of the bracket has No. 2 seed Northeastern Junior College facing Trinidad State Junior College at 9 a.m. Friday. Trinidad State stopped McCook Community College in the first round. The championship is slated for Saturday afternoon in the double elimination tournament.

For the Cougars to capture their 10^th straight regional title, Alvarez said this team just needs to focus on the task at hand and not look ahead to the Nov. 20-22 national tournament in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

“Coach [Giovana Melo] told us to go one game at a time because since this team was national champions last year, most of the people are thinking nationals and jumping over regionals,” she said. “It is like ‘hello, we have to win regionals to get to nationals.’ Our competition is NJC so we have to work hard to beat them.”

To do that, the team needs to play a complete contest and stay focused.

“We have to focus and play hard in our game and just leave everything on the court,” Alvarez said. “We need to be ready for NJC and stop their Brazilian hitter [Brunna Kronbauer]. We need to play hard against them and don’t lose focus. That is the key.”

The Cougars have had a stellar year, falling just three times. The first two losses came to No. 1 ranked Iowa Western Community College on Sept. 9. The third defeat, to Miami Dade College a couple weeks ago, was a loss that actually will help the team.

“I think that loss was a news flash where we are a beatable team. It shows that there are other good teams that have what it takes to beat us,” Alvarez said. “The loss was like a reality check where we realized that we are human, and that we can lose, too. We just have to work hard on some things and focus on little details.”

The Cougars are the odds on favorite to capture the regional title after breezing through the South Sub-region tournament with an unblemished record for the fifth straight year. The Cougars dropped just two games in those 10 matches, both to Northeastern Junior College.

There are times, however, that the team seems to drop to their team’s talent-level. Alvarez said they need to treat all teams like they are a ranked team.

“Sometimes we get down to the level of the other team and that is when we lose focus,” she said. “We are ahead by like 10 points and then the next time you see the score they are almost gaining on us because we lose focus and go down to their level. A lot of times, we make a lot of service errors, which is not good.”

The one thing the Cougars have experienced this year was a team with plenty of depth. The Cougars are led by just three sophomores, Alvarez, Fatima Balza and Nayka Benitez. Balza and Benitez were both members of last year’s national championship team. Benitez was named the national tournament libero of the tourney, while Balza was an honorable mention NJCAA all-American.

The Cougars have also received support from 6-foot twins Sabina and Paulina Piegza, outside hitters Kaleinani Kabalis and Cami Weimer, as well as players such as Naomi Flinders, Brooke Blomenkamp, and Gregner Quinones.

Alvarez said as good of a season that they have had, it would be a shame if this team would falter.

“We have to win regionals and then go to nationals and prove we are one of the best teams,” she said. “I know there are a lot of high expectations for this team. This is a very good team and I am blessed to even be here. It would be just great to be there and win the title again. I want to be part of that.”