Both teams will battle Lamar Community College on Friday before taking on Otero Junior College on Saturday. The weekend trip is the start of a grueling road swing for both squads as they will also face Casper College, Northeastern Junior College and Northeast Nebraska in the coming 12 days.
“I am sure the kids are excited to get back into action. It has been five weeks since we played and it has been a long time off,” women’s coach Dave Harnish said. “The two teams we played this weekend, Lamar and Otero, have already played two or three games and this is a tough stretch for us. We have to go on the road and play at Lamar and Otero this weekend. Then, we have to turn around and go at Casper, Norfolk and at NJC.”
“It will be a huge two weeks to start the semester off. Any road trip is tough, but when you have four of the five toughest places to play, I hope we can withstand it and get through it. After that the schedule turns into our favor.”
The Cougar women enter two seasons as one of the favorites to win the regional tournament. WNCC, 13-2, is ranked 16th in this week’s NJCAA national poll. Harnish said he is pleased with where the team is, even though he said they could have easily been 14-1 or 15-0.
“Based on starting out the season with 13 freshmen, you have to be excited about the start,” Harnish said. “We lost to Midland by eight and we had a chance to win that game if we would have rebounded better. Then we lost by one to Seward. We are kind of disappointed because we could have been 14-1 or 15-0 if we would have played better.”
The Cougar women will face Lamar and Otero, two teams that have already played a couple of games last week. Lamar enters this weekend’s game with a 7-10 mark, while Otero is 13-3. This will be Otero’s fifth game since the first of the year. Otero topped Air Force Prep 60-57 on Tuesday and the defeated Colorado Christian junior varsity 77-39 on Wednesday.
Last year the Cougars split on the road trip to southern Colorado, opening with a win against Lamar before falling to Otero. Harnish is hoping his team doesn’t repeat what happened a year ago.
“It is always difficult when you come off the break because you don’t know if they are not ready to play,” he said. “You won’t know until you go out and play that first game. Playing back-to-back nights will be tough for us like we found out last year when we lost the second day to Otero. The next 10 to 12 days will be very tough for us and we will have to fight and scratch to get through it.”
Harnish, however, is hoping is team is ready for not only this weekend’s contests, but to contend for a regional title in a couple months.
“We adjusted well the last two weeks and played really well just before Christmas break. Hopefully we can continue to pick up where we left off, continue growing and getting better, and make a run at the regional tournament.”
While the women have been off for five weeks, the Cougar men competed in a New Year’s Eve tournament in Iowa where they went 1-2. WNCC, 10-5, have dropped two of their last six games since Dec. 1.
WNCC men’s coach Russ Beck feels his team is ready for the second half of the season.
“This weekend’s games are an opportunity for us to start off on the right foot in terms of the second half of the season,” he said. “I am excited about the opportunity and I think the guys are prepared to seize the opportunity.”
The Cougar men have played one of the toughest schedules in the region and things won’t get any easier. Beck said playing in the New Year’s Eve tournament will help the team in the long run.
“I can’t question how hard we played against any of the teams we played in Iowa. We played hard enough to win, but we didn’t play smart enough to win,” Beck said. “We need to be a little bit solider defensively and quit giving up penetration toward the middle of the floor. That has been our Achilles tendon defensively. We have addressed that over the last 12 days practicing. I am hoping the time here we got all the tire and winter break out of our legs. I think we are ready to go.”
After this weekend’s contests, both teams will be on the road on Wednesday when they travel to Casper, Wyo., They then will get into the sub-region season with a game against Northeast Community College out of Norfolk, Neb., next Saturday.
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