WNCC sweeps Otero

Western Nebraska Community College’s Kathryn Stock finished with a double-double and the Cougar volleyball team swept past Otero Junior College 25-13, 25-14, 25-13 in south sub-region action Thursday night at Cougar Palace

Stock paced the team with 13 kills while also serving 11 points in the victory. Stock said this is a good win for them after struggling in the four-set win against McCook Community College on Tuesday.

“We wanted to keep our energy high, play as a team and we wanted to do the simple stuff right and stay disciplined,” the 5-foot-11 sophomore said. “We wanted to get the free balls perfect and give them the ball and let the other team make mistakes.”

WNCC and Otero stayed close through the first part of the opening set, before a Stock kill and two Sierra Schmidt points pushed the lead to 15-11. WNCC opened the set up some more after a Debora Araujo kill followed by a five-point service run by Stock to go up 21-12. Emily Hoehn then serviced the final three points for the win.

The big key in the opening set for the Cougars was a potent offensive attack along with strong serving. The Cougars tallied 15 kills in the set, while they served for 13 points. The offensive attack was spread out by all the Cougars hitters as Araujo had four kills, while Ariel Austin and Tania Torres had three.

WNCC took control early in the second set as Fernanda Goncalves served four straight points. Otero came back as Ellie Traut served two points to slice the lead to 4-3. Schmidt pushed the lead to 10-5 on three points, including two blazing hits by Lais Soares.

Otero stayed tough as they sliced the lead to three points on many occasions, including the last time at 17-14. Things changed after that as Stock served six straight points to close out the second set 25-14.

Once again, the Cougars had balanced hitting and serving as the team finished with 10 kills and served for 14 points.

WNCC didn’t change anything in the third set, finishing with 16 kills as a team while serving for 14 points. The big statistic for the match was the Cougars only missed three serves all night compared to seven for the Rattlers.

Goncalves started the third set with a strong service run, pushing the Cougars to a 6-1 lead with five points. After Otero cut the deficit to four points, 10-6 on a kill by Ashley Delores Aloi and two points by Jayde Ashida, the Cougars opened up the contest as Araujo hammered a kill and then served three points to double the score on the Rattlers at 20-10, including a kill from Mackenzie Westphal.

Austin and Westphal finished off the Rattlers by collecting kills in the final two points.

The fifth-ranked Cougars had a balanced attack on the floor in the win. Araujo finished with nine kills, 12 digs and six points; Austin had 10 kills; Torres had five kills and two blocks; Soares had five kills and three blocks; Goncalves had 10 points and 30 set assists; Jodi Huddleston had a block; Westphal had two kills; Schmidt had three digs and five points; Hoehn had 24 digs, five points and three set assists; and Sarah Hirschfeld had a set assist.

WNCC, 21-3, will be back in action Friday when they host Lamar Community College at 7 p.m. followed by a home contest against Trinidad State Junior College on Saturday at 1 p.m. Lamar fell to Northeastern Junior College Thursday night 25-22, 25-19, 25-20. Stock said these sub-region matches are important.

“Yes they are important and we are ready for them,” she said. “We are going into the sub-region games and take care of business. Tonight, we took care of the simple stuff, stay disciplined, and didn’t make mistakes.”