WNCC volleyball team opens up practice Monday with 13 players

More photos of the first day located at wncccougars.albumpost.com

The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team entered Monday’s first day of practice with plenty of questions. The team also entered the 2009 season with a lot of expectations to continue the team’s 10-year reign as Region IX champions.

The questions were quickly answered as the Cougars will field another talented team. In fact, this year’s team has just as much, if not more, talent as last year’s stellar team. Last year’s team finished with a 59-4 record and third at the national tournament as well as sending the three sophomores onto Division I programs.

Giovani Melo definitely can see the potential of success in this year’s squad.

“I do see a lot of talent,” the second-year coach said. “I see a lot of kids that have a lot of potential that we can work with and I think it will be a good team.”

What is making this year’s team something to watch for is the way the team is quickly coming together as one. WNCC also has seven players that are 5-foot-10 or taller. WNCC also returns six players, four of which were starters a year ago.

Kaleinani Kabalis, who was an NJCAA all-American last season, is one of those returners. Kabalis, the hard-hitting outside hitter, is definitely excited for the coming season.

“I thought it was a good first-day of practice. Everybody clicked and everybody practiced hard,” the 5-foot-9 outside hitter from Hilo, Hawaii said. “I think we have a lot of talent and we have a lot of height that we didn’t have last year. I think we are a good team. We have good chemistry. We get along great. It is like we knew each other our whole lives.”

The first day actually started Sunday when the team had team meetings, picture session, a picnic with their dorm families, and a five mile run. Monday involved just little conditioning exercises and mini games so Melo could get a feel of where the team is.

“I think it was OK,” Melo said. “We didn’t do much team stuff, I just let them play and see where we were and each player was. It was more of a placement practice to see where they were.”

Kabalis said the toughest part was that mile run.

“The first day was tough just because we had to run the mile the day before [Sunday],” she said. “But overall it wasn’t that bad. The first day was just getting to know the team and everything. We played with everyone with 2-on-2 games.”

There are 13 players that suited up for the Cougars’ first day of practice. Besides Kabalas, five others return from last year’s team in Cami Weimer, 5-8 from Ft. Morgan, Colo., Whitney Roth, 6-1 from Gering, Brook Blomenkamp, 5-9 from Gering, and Sabina and Paulina Piegza, 6-foot twins from Poland.

The incoming freshmen include Kabalis’ younger sister Kuulei, a 5-6 setter from Hilo, Hawaii. The other freshmen include Mckenzie Westphal, 5-10 from Scottsbluff, Sierra Schmidt, 5-6 from Gering, Emily Hoehn, 5-6 from Kearney, Tania Torres, 6-1 from Camuy, Puerto Rico, Kathryn Stock, 6-0 from Thibodaux, La., and Ariel Austin, 6-0 from Woodland Park, Colo.

Melo already sees plenty of plusses from this year’s team.

“They seem to get a long so far, but it is just the beginning,” she said. “I think there are expectations just from us being good for awhile for the past couple of years, so there is some high expectations. We just have to take one game at a time and see where we are at, still get better.”

The Cougars will go through 2-a-days through next week. They will then have three home scrimmages beginning Aug. 14 against Regis University. They will also scrimmage Colby Community College Aug. 15 before having their alumni scrimmage Aug. 22. WNCC will open the season for real on Aug. 27-28 when they compete in the Iowa Western Invite.

“Practices will get harder,” Melo said. “We have a small time to work with them [before our first competition] so we just need to go as hard as we can the next few weeks and see what happens.”

Kabalis is itching to start playing for real to see just how good this team really is.

“I am excited for the season and to see how we do,” she said. “I want to see how well we will play together. I think we have a lot of talent. We have more height on this team. We have more hitters and we have a lot of defensive players, too.”

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Mark Rein
Photographer,
WNCC SID,
College Relations Assistant

Cell: 308-631-0459
Home: 308-436-2963
Work: 308-635-6057
Email: mrein@wncc.net