Tamika Eastman pounded down a career high 17 kills and the 20th-ranked Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team earned a hard-fought 4-set win over Laramie County Community College 25-16, 22-25, 25-23, 31-29 Tuesday evening at Cougar Palace.
The win moves the Cougars to 18-6 on the season as they get ready to host two matches this weekend in conference play. WNCC will face Lamar Community College on Friday with a 5 p.m. start followed McCook Community College on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Taylor Tyser, who finished the night with 33 digs, which was a WNCC career high, said the team fought hard against a scrappy LCCC team that also fights for every point and doesn’t give up.
“We fought really hard today. They are a really good team so it was back and forth a lot,” Tyser, the sophomore from Laramie, Wyoming, said. “We then lost the second set and we just came back strong and didn’t give up. We knew they would be a good team and they wouldn’t give up. We knew if we took care of ourselves, we could come out on top.”
It was a contest where both teams came back from deficits and it was a match where the two teams combined for 107 kills and 178 digs and 30 total blocks.
Eastman, the Sioux County graduate, hit. .264 for the match while Lilly Zwart tallied 14 kills followed by nine from Chloe Grady. Ahleejah Tovo-Sunia added seven kills and Dessiah Christopher and Finja Schul each had six kills.
LCCC was led by Lea Susoy with 15 kills followed by Adriana Deming with 12 and Elysiana Fonseca with 10.
Hitting wasn’t the only thing that stood out in the contest between the two teams. Defense was also impressive. WNCC finished with 99 total digs while LCCC had 79. Tyser had a WNCC career high of 33 digs. Nora Marginean finished with 18 digs followed by Tovo-Sunia with 15, Alex Gonzalez-Orozco with 13, Eastman with nine, and Zwart with seven. Dessiah Christopher and Finja Schul each had six kills.
A lot of the digs and kills came from two teams that were scrappy all night. Tyser said the team pushed through and came up with big plays to earn the win over a talented Laramie County squad.
“It (coming back from deficits) is something we have been working on and we have been practicing it a lot,” Tyser said. “Coach Fati has our practices super competitive and we practice coming back from (the deficits) when the other team is up. She has prepared us really well for that.”
WNCC played well in the first as they raced to an 11-3 lead and led 24-14 and won 25-16 on a Eastman service point.
The second set was a set of runs. WNCC went up 6-2 after three Tyser points and later was up 21-15. LCCC came back as Maria Rawlek had six straight points to tie the set at 21-21. LCCC won the second 25-22 after Salaana Akanoa served the final two points.
The third set saw WNCC lead 8-6 on an Eastman kill. It was short-lived as LCCC went in front 10-8 on three Akanoa points. WNCC fought back to lead 14-13 after two Eastman points only to watch LCCC go back in front 16-14.
The Cougars zoomed back in front 20-18 on a Tova-Sunia kill and service points and won the third set 25-23 on a Tova-Sunia kill.
The fourth set was one where WNCC never led until late, except at 1-0. LCCC took a 12-8 lead and led 15-9 and seemed in control. LCCC led 22-17 and that was when WNCC made the comeback. Tyser served three points and brought the Cougars back to within one a 22-21.
LCCC had set point at 24-23 when the Cougars tied the set at 24-24. LCCC would have set point three other times in the set, but each time the Cougars found a way to avoid being defeated. At 25-24, Finja Schul got a kill and then served a point for the Cougars first lead at 26-25.
LCCC came back and led 27-26 when Chloe Grady got a kill for the 27-27 tie. The Golden Eagles led 28-27 and this time Zwart got a key kill to get the set tied at 28-28. Eastman then had a service point for the 29-28 lead. LCCC tied the set once again only to see Zwart get a kill and the 30-29 lead. Tyser then served the ball and a LCCC kill that went out of bounds gave the Cougars the set point at 31-29.
WNCC also got 54 set assists from Marginean along with 18 digs, nine points, and an ace. Eastman had four points with her nine digs and 17 kills. Tyser tallied eight points with an ace to go with her 33 digs.
Tovo-Sunia had eight points while Schul had five and Zwart with four. Alex Gonzalez-Orozco had 13 digs.
Tyser said her team will enjoy this win tonight but will be back on the practice floor on Wednesday to get ready for this weekend’s contests.
“Right now we just need to rest and enjoy this victory,” she said. “But, then we have to get back into the gym and keep working because we had too many errors in some sets and things that we can control, so we just need to work on our side some more.”
