The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team continues to breeze through the Wyo-Braska Shootout after picking up three more wins on Friday at Cougar Palace. The 4th-ranked Cougars opened the second day of the Shootout with a 25-10, 25-19, 25-15 win over Colby Community College followed by a sweep of No. 17 Laramie County Community College 25-17, 25-19, 25-12. WNCC finished off the second day by topping Northwest College 25-16, 25-17, 28-26 in a battle of coaches that played at WNCC as Giovana Melo and Northwest’s Flavia Siquiera faced each other on the court.
The Cougars, in picking up the three wins on Friday, registered their 20th win of the season. WNCC coach Giovana Melo was really impressed with the team’s play on Friday over some good ball clubs.
“It is hard to go on the road and lose a couple of games, but it was good for them to see that experience [of the losses in Salt Lake],” Melo said. “Now it is time for us to start piling up the wins and work hard against every single team we play and keep on winning.
“Today, I thought they came out really strong and knew what they wanted. It was a good game but we played well to win it.”
A big reason for the team’s success is that they are well-balanced and it starts with the setter, who knows how to distribute the ball and the hitters make plays when they need to.
“I think Sabi does a really good job of spreading it around and seeing where there weakest players are or seeing the block and what is going on on the other side of the net,” she said. “She equalizes out everybody and every single hitter had been doing well. I think when the team is playing together out there as a team, results like today is what happens. We don’t have one dominate player and I told them we need all of them.”
WNCC definitely elevated its game against Laramie County and Northwest Wyoming. In the LCCC win, Weimer finished with a double-double, collecting 11 digs, 11 points, and six kills.
The Cougars also received a balanced attack against the No. 17 team in the nation as Kaleinani Kabalis had nine kills, three blocks and eight digs; while Paulina Piegza had six kills, four blocks and 10 points; and Brooke Blomenkamp had six kills and four blocks.
Sabina Piegza, from her setting position, finished the contest with seven kills, four blocks, five points and 28 set assists. Tania Torres also stepped up big, finishing with four kills and blocks.
WNCC and LCCC were tied five times in the early stages of set one, but opened the contest as Paulina Piegza served six straight points with two kills from Torres to put WNCC up 17-10 and went on to win 25-16.
The second set was a little closer as LCCC held a 17-14 lead at one time. That all changed after Weimer finished her serves as WNCC streaked out to a 20-16 lead and the win.
The third set started out like the first one as both teams were tied five times early on, the last time at 9-9. Things changed in a heartbeat as Kuulei Kabalis served the team to a 13-9 lead and then Weimer pushed the lead to 21-10 on three service points a kill.
WNCC was just as impressive against Northwest, winning the first two 25-16, 25-17. The third contest was an all-out war. Northwest had their biggest lead of the set, leading 13-10 at one time. WNCC came back and led 19-16 and was facing match point on a Kaleinani Kabalis kill. The lead see-sawed until a Paulina Piegza kill put WNCC up 27-26. Then the Piegza twins combined on a block for the winner.
Kaleinani Kabalis pounded home a season-high 24 kills. The sophomore also had eight blocks. Paulina Piegza also hammered home double-figure kills in registering 12. She also had three blocks and three digs.
Also for WNCC, Stock had six kills, 10 digs and digs points’ Blomenkamp had six kills and three digs; Sabina Piegza had six blocks, seven digs, eight points and 43 set assists; Tania Torres had four kills and two blocks; Kuulei Kabalis 12 digs and three points; and Emily Howhn had eight digs.
In the team’s opener against Colby, the Cougars sputtered a little bit, but had enough depth to register the three-set win. The Cougars easily controlled set one racing out to a 20-6 lead behind five service points by Emily Hoehn.
The next two sets were a little closer, but the Cougars found the will to win behind Weimer, who had three points and two big kills in the second set. In the third set, the Cougars opened up a tight contest as Kuulei Kabalis served for four points and also received some clutch kills from Weimer, Kathryn Stock and Paulina Piegza for the win.
Stock paced the Cougars with 13 kills and four points, while Paulina Piegza finished with nine kills and five points. Weimer had an all-around match, finishing with four kills, five points, a solo block and six points.
Also for the Cougars, Emily Hoehn had seven points, Kaleinani Kabalis had two kills, two blocks, and four digs; Sabina Piegza had 27 set assists and five kills; Kuulei Kabalis had six points and five digs; and Ariel Austin had six kills.
WNCC will wrap up the Wyo-Braska tournament today as they face Western Wyoming Community College at 10 a.m. There are just four matches scheduled for today. The other matchups will see Trinidad State battle LCCC at 10 a.m., followed by Sheridan facing McCook and Colby taking in LCCC at noon.
There will be three matches at Torrington, Wyo., on Saturday with the Lancers facing Dawson and Lamar meeting Casper at 10 a.m., followed by Northwest Wyoming taking on Air Force Prep at Noon.
Other scores Friday in the tournament at Cougar Palace include LCCC over Dawson 25-10, 25-22, 25-10; Sheridan over Colby 25-17, 26-24, 25-23, NJC over Dawson 25-14, 25-9, 25-10, Air Force Prep over McCook 25-14, 25-9, 25-10; Northwest Wyoming over Colby 25-22, 25-20, 25-9; No. 17 LCCC over No. 12 NJC 25-22, 25-22, 25-20; and Dawson over McCook 25-19, 22-25, 25-17, 25-18.
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