The Cougars, playing the second straight match without sophomore Sabina Piegza at the setter position, took care of the Trojans 25-15, 25-14, 25-11 to improve to 34-2 overall and 8-0 in sub-region play.
The last time WNCC and Trinidad faced each other, WNCC had a rather easy time with the Trojans on the road. Kabalis said taking them for granted wasn’t the reason for playing inconsistent, they just didn’t give their best performance.
“I just think what we faced with Sabi getting hurt and that we need to adjust to the changes we are making right now. It is just a little bit difficult,” Kabalis said. “I think we played well [Saturday], but we need more energy and we also need to celebrate more on winning a point.”
The Cougars will definitely need to pick it up another notch as their next two contests will be against ranked teams, Thursday against No. 14 Casper College at home and then Oct. 28 on the road against No. 20 Northeastern Junior College. WNCC will be playing those matches without Piegza, who is out for two weeks after tweaking a knee Thursday night against Otero Junior College.
“We have to overcome what happened because everyone gets hurt,” Kabalis said. “This is a challenge, an obstacle that we will face. We just need to realize that no matter what happens we are a team and we can win no matter what.”
The two setters, who were thrown in the limelight Friday night in running the 6-2 offense, did alright. Kabalis finished the contest with 15 set assists, while Schmidt had 20 set assists and 11 points. The last time the Cougars ran a 6-2 offense was back in 2005 when Bethany Dillman and Stephanie Perez were the setters, said former Cougar coach and now Alaska Anchorage head coach Chris Green.
“We ran a 6-2 offense only one year with Bethany Dillman and Stephanie Perez,” Green said. “We ran it most of the year as Stephanie stayed in the front row and hit. Bethany was subbed out for when she came in the front row.”
Even when WNCC was struggling at times, had plenty of talent and depth to squelch any Trinidad upset attempt.
Trinidad State gave the Cougars something to worry about early on in the opening two sets, slicing the lead to 12-11 on a Shervonn Johnson service point. The Cougars rebounded as Schmidt had two service points before Kaleinani Kabalis had four points to push the lead to 22-13.
The second set started out the same way. Trinidad took a 4-1 lead early and had the set tied at 12. Kaleinani Kabalis and Schmidt changed the outlook of the contest quickly. Kaleinani Kabalis pounded home a kill and then Schmidt served six straight points to give the Cougars a 19-12 lead.
A few rotations later, Kaleinani Kabalis served for five points behind three huge kills from Ariel Austin to get the win.
WNCC quickly took control of the third set as Tania Torres and Kathryn Stock started things with kills followed by Emily Hoehn goingn on a six-point scoring run behind the front row play of Stock, Brook Blomenkamp and Whitney Roth.
Trinidad came back, slicing he lead to 8-5 on three points from Katherine Harris, but kills from Austin and Roth and then a 11-point service run from Roth all but ended the Trojans chances of a comeback.
WNCC had a variety of players step up Saturday. Austin paced the team with nine kills and three blocks. Also for the Cougars, Kaleinani Kabalis had six kills and seven points; Stock had six kills, four points and seven digs; Paulina Piegza had four kills; Torres had seven kills and two blocks; Blomenkamp had four kills; Cami Weimer had four kills and eight digs; and Roth had four kills and 11 points.
The Cougars will have just three more regular season contests left. Next week, the Cougars will host Casper College at 7 p.m.
“We have to come ready to play,” Kuulei Kabalis said. “I think we will be ready after practice. We just need to work hard during the upcoming week.”
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