After a two year absence from the national tournament, the Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team will be looking to get back to the national tournament when the Region IX tournament begins Wednesday in Casper, Wyoming.
WNCC enters the tournament as the No. 1 seed from the South sub-region and a No. 11 ranking in the NJCAA national polls that were released on Monday. The Cougars have an outstanding 23-5 record entering the tournament.
WNCC will open play at 5 p.m. Wednesday when they face the winner of the Eastern Wyoming College and Trinidad State Junior College that will be played at 10 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Two teams from the regional tournament will make the national tournament April 15-17 in West Plains, Missouri. The winner of the winner’s bracket will qualify as the Northwest Plains A Champion and then the winner of the consolation bracket will qualify as the Northwest Plains B Champion.
Angel Nahinu, a freshman middle hitter from Hawaii, said it would be special for this team to win one of the regional titles.
“It would be very special,” Nahinu said. “It would be great to experience playing at a high level with good teams. Our team definitely has the potential to get there and compete.”
WNCC is the No. 1 seed from the South while Northeastern Junior college is the No. 2 seed from the South. Casper College is the No. 1 seed from the North and Central Wyoming College the No. 2 seed. All four teams received a bye into the actual tournament.
That means there are four play-in games. At 8 a.m., Laramie County faces Lamar Community College with the winner meeting NJC at 3 p.m., and McCook faces Western Wyoming with the winner taking on Central Wyoming at 1 p.m. The 10 a.m. play-in games have Eastern Wyoming facing Trinidad State with the winner meeting WNCC at 5 p.m. and Otero taking on Northwest Wyoming with the winner facing Casper at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
The semifinals will be Thursday with the first championship game slated for 4 p.m. on Friday. The second championship match will be played Saturday at 4 p.m.
Nahinu said this Cougar team can win a regional title if they play to their potential.
“It’s going to take a lot of hard work and teamwork,” she said. “We definitely have the potential to come home with a trophy. It’s just a matter of applying all of our hard work and skills into the game, playing hard all of the time, and playing together for each other.”
A little history about the North and South Region IX teams playing together in one tournament. WNCC has just won the tournament just once when all the teams have come together and that was 1988. When the tournament was split up into two tournaments with just the North teams in one tourney and the South teams in another tourney, WNCC won regionals 19 straight years from 1999 until 2018.
So, winning a regional title, whether it is the winner’s bracket or the consolation bracket, will be only the second time in school history with all the teams in Region IX together. That means from 1989 to 1998, WNCC went without a trip to nationals.
The Cougar players want to bring back the national tournament experience to Scottsbluff and this team has all the talent to do that. The Cougars will win the first title if they win three straight matches.
The first match will not be easy or in fact, any of the matches as all the teams are capable of winning. WNCC’s opening match against EWC or Trinidad, which it should be EWC, will be against a Lancer squad that has defeated WNCC in the first match of the year in four sets on January 22 26-28, 25-17, 25-20, 25-22.
WNCC came back and topped EWC in straight sets March 16 25-13, 25-18, 25-21.
Nahinu said it doesn’t matter who they play, it is how they play themselves on the court.
“We have to first do well with our passing so that it can get to our setters nicely and then to our hitters,” the freshman said. “Both of these teams are very capable of doing well. They will be playing to win as well, so it’s very important for us to play hard all the time and just handle our business.”
WNCC has just lost five matches all season and just two to Region IX teams. The Cougars are unblemished against south teams, but fell to the North teams EWC and Casper. The other losses came to Seward County Community College, who is ranked 10th just ahead of WNCC, Utah State Eastern, who is ranked 4th, and Iowa Western Community College, who is ranked 5th. WNCC has also defeated Utah State Eastern back in January.
The tournament will be competitive, but WNCC has not ran away from competition. The Cougars have beaten Utah State Eastern once this season. WNCC also has beaten Casper as well as No. 12 NJC. WNCC has toppled Central Wyoming twice this season. In fact, the Cougars have beat all the regional tournament teams at least once this season. The only team they have not played was Western Wyoming.
The tournament can be watched on the Casper College Youtube channel. The WNCC contests will also be available on the radio at KOZY 101.3 FM as well as the Internet.
Region IX Tournament Schedule
Wednesday, March 31
8 a.m. – LCCC vs. Lamar, McCook vs. Western Wyoming
10 a.m. – EWC vs. Trinidad, Otero vs. Northwest Wyoming
1 p.m. – Central Wyoming vs. McCook/W. Wyoming winner
3 p.m. – NJC vs. Lamar/LCCC winner
5 p.m. – WNCC vs. EWC/Trinidad winner
7 p.m. – Casper vs. Otero/Northwest winner
Thursday, April 1
Noon – Wednesday 1 p.m. loser vs. Wednesday 5 p.m. loser
2 p.m. – Wednesday 3 p.m. loser vs. Wednesday 7 p.m. loser
4 p.m. – Wednesday 1 p.m. winner vs. Wednesday 5 p.m. winner
6 p.m. – Wednesday 3 p.m. winner vs. Wednesday 7 p.m. winner
Friday, April 2
Noon – Winner of Thursday noon vs. Loser of Thursday 6 p.m.
2 p.m. – Winner of Thursday 2 p.m. vs. Loser of Thursday 4 p.m.
4 p.m. – Wednesday 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. winners (Region IX championship 1)
Saturday, April 3
Noon – Friday Noon and 2 p.m. winners
4 p.m. – Saturday noon winner vs. Friday 4 p.m. loser (Region IX championship 2)
