The No. 18 Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team won a pair of Region IX South conference contests over the weekend.
The Cougars swept past Otero College on Friday 25-14, 28-26, 25-21 and then swept past Trinidad State College 25-11, 25-21, 25-21 on Saturday.
WNCC moves to 23-7 overall and remains in second place in the South conference at 6-1.
The Cougars will have three road games next week when they travel to Eastern Wyoming College on Tuesday at 6 p.m. EWC has won 14 straight contests and are leading the North conference with a perfect 8-0 record. The EWC match is not a conference contest.
WNCC will then hit the road on Friday and Saturday when they travel to Lamar Community College on Friday and then McCook Community College on Saturday.
In Saturday’s win over Trinidad, the Cougars had a strong serving game with seven aces. Taylor Tyser had a double-double with 10 points, 14 digs, and an ace. Tamika Eastman also had a double-double with 14 kills, 10 digs, two aces, and five points.
Lilly Zwart finished with 12 kills and five points while Finja Schul had five kills, nine points, five digs, and two aces. Nora Marginean had four kills, five digs, three points, an ace, and 30 set assists.
Also for the Cougars, Ahleejah Tovo-Sunia had three digs and two points; and Alex Gonzalez-Orozco had six digs.
WNCC never trailed in the first game as they opened a 10-7 contest and got eight straight service points from Tyser to lead 20-8 and went on to win on two Schul points and the set-winning kill from Eastman.
The second set saw the teams tied at 8-8 when Schul served three points. Later, Zwart had three more for a 20-13 lead. Trinidad sliced the lead to 23-21, but WNCC got the set winner on an Eastman ace.
The third set went back and forth with the two teams knotted at 6-6. Eastman followed with a kill and Schul served four points for an 11-6 lead. WNCC went up 19-14 after two Tovo-Sunia points. Trinidad tied the set at 20-20 and later 21-21. WNCC went up 23-21, but Trinidad knotted things at 23-23. A missed serve gave WNCC a sideout and then Tyser served the final point for the win.
Friday’s contest was also a show of balanced serving and kills. WNCC finished with seven aces against Otero along with 38 kills while hitting .346. Eastman tallied 11 service points with an ace, seven digs, and eight kills. Zwart led the team with 13 kills with four digs, six blocks, two aces, and six points.
Tyser finished with 10 digs and five points, while Tovo-Sunia had nine points, two aces, and seven digs. Also for the Cougars, Marginean had 29 set assists, three kills, two blocks, and four points; Chloe Grady had two kills and three blocks; Dessiah Christopher had four kills and two blocks; Schul had four kills, six blocks, and three points; and Nadiyyah Northern had three kills.
The first set against Otero saw a tight contest with WNCC leading 12-11. Zwart then served three points with two aces for a 15-11 lead and Tovo-Sunia had two aces for an 18-12 lead. WNCC won the first set 25-14 on two Marginean points.
The second set saw Otero lead 6-1 before WNCC came back to grab an 11-9 lead behind four points from Tovo-Sunia. The two teams were tied at 17-17 when Christopher getting a kill and then Zwart had three points. WNCC led 24-21 after an Eastman kill, but Otero came back to grab a 25-24 lead. The two teams were tied at 25 and 26 when Zwart made it 27-26 and then Tyser served the final point.
The third set saw WNCC lead 6-2 after five Eastman points. WNCC led 15-9 on three Tovo-Sunia points with two kills from Eastman. Otero tied the contest at 18-18, but Eastman got a kill and then served four points for a 23-18 lead.
Otero came back to make it 23-21, but WNCC got the final two points, including the match-winning kill from Schul.
