Kathryn Stock hammered home 17 kills and Cami Weimer finished with 14 points to lead the Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team to its 26th win of the season with a sweep of McCook Community College Tuesday at Cougar Palace. The 4th-ranked Cougars, 26-2, earned the 25-12, 25-11, 25-8 win in impressive fashion as Weimer said this was one of their better matches as far as an all-around contest.
“I think we played really good. I think we minimized on our errors when we play teams like this,” she said. “We are striving to get better every day and with our next games coming up, this was getting us ready for it.”
Tuesday night, the Cougars minimized those errors in rolling to their 17th straight win and they did it with a balanced attack from all phases of the game.
The serving was the big are that stood out for the Cougars on the night. Weimer paced the team with 14 services points, including three aces. Weimer had 11 straight service points to open the third set.
Kaleinani Kabalis also had a strong serving contest in the first game, finishing with seven points and four aces in that opening contest. Also stepping up from the service line was Sabina Piegza with eight points and two aces, while Whitney Roth had six points and Emily Hoehn had four points.
Serving was just one aspect of the game that stood out as the Cougars committed just seven hitting errors on the night. Stock led the team with 17 kills with a .586 hitting efficiency. Sabina Piegza finished the contest with six kills followed by Brooke Blomenkamp with five and Kaleinani Kabalis with four. Kabalis kills were all in the first set.
What kept the Cougars offensive going, though, was their defense. In the first set, Kabalis had two back-row saves on set point to allow Paulina Piegza a change to hit home the set winner. It is that defense that Weimer says helps lift the team.
“It is nice that we have ups like that because it boosts everyone’s confidence,” she said. “We are able to play our kind of ball when we get those saves.”
Weimer even had a huge save in the second set from the back row that lifted the team to a 20-8 lead. Weimer’s save allowed Stock to pound home a kill and allow Weimer to keep serving. Later in the set, Roth served up two service points for a 23-9 lead.
WNCC then survived a long rally with some clutch defense to allow Stock pound home another kill for a 24-11 lead. Paulina Piegza served the final point for the winner.
The third set was a complete domination by the Cougars as Weimer’s first 11 points, including two aces and two blocks by Roth, helped WNCC to the 11-0 lead. Hoehn followed with four point to up the ante to 23-7 before Stock finished off the match with her 17th kill.
WNCC’s defense was definitely stellar on the night as the Cougars combined for 41 digs. Kuulei Kabalis led the team with 12 digs followed by Sabina Piegza with nine, Weimer with eight and Stock with five.
Also for the Cougars, Sabina Piegza had 29 set assists and two blocks; and Roth with four blocks.
Weimer said one of the main reasons for the complete team play was because they knew they have some important matches coming up this weekend at the Seward Invite as well as a home contest with Northeastern Junior College next Tuesday.
“We told ourselves that we have to get 10 percent better from how we are practicing and playing the day,” she said. “We just try to improve ourselves and we strive to get better every day.”
WNCC will face, Midlands College, Redlands Community College, No. 11 Seward County Community College, and Arizona Western, who received honorable mention votes.
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