WEST PLAINS, Mo. – The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team saw their season come to an end after going 1-1 on Friday at the NJCAA national tournament in West Plains, Missouri.
WNCC started the day with an impressive, five-set win over Lawson State Community College where Karen Cordero finished with 23 kills and 13 digs in the five-set win over the Cougars from Alabama 19-25, 25-15, 22-25, 25-20, 15-9. Cordero also became the 12th Cougar volleyball player to record 1,000 career kills in the match.
That win set up a contest that afternoon against the host team Missouri State West Plains and the Cougars battled with the Grizzlies, but in the end, MSU-West Plains snuck out the 27-25, 25-18, 25-21 win. MSU-West Plains will now play Northeastern Junior College for ninth place. NJC defeated Barton 28-26, 27-25, 19-25, 25-15.
The Cougars finish the year at 27-7, but more importantly the team got back to the national tournament after missing out the last two years.
It was a successful season for the Cougars overall as they finished tied for 11th place at the national tournament. While it is sad that the season is over, there are plenty of positives the players can look upon to the season.
“We had an awesome season,” sophomore Olivia Schaub said. “We had a lot of fun together. It was so special for us to make it to nationals because the sophomores didn’t make it last year.”
Macey Boggs, who had a unusual season as she played high school volleyball in the fall and graduated in December from Gering and came to play for the Cougars in the spring, said it has been an unbelievable year and one that the freshmen know what it takes to compete at nationals for next year.
“I am so thankful for the opportunity that I have had this year! It was amazing to go from high school volleyball to college in the same year,” Boggs said. “This trip was a great eye opener for the freshman. We now understand what we need to do to make it again next year.”
What the players can take from this season is that they put WNCC back on the national map as they got to celebrate the schools 21st trip to the national tournament.
“This season was a very special one,” Boggs said. “I met some amazing people and loved getting to play with my teammates. It was super excited that we had the chance to compete at nationals.”
WNCC played with a lot of grit and fire on the day and showed the Cougars belong on the national stage.
Schaub said they played hard all day, just coming up short in the second match against MSU-West Plains.
“The first game we had our ups and downs, but we finished strong which is what matters most,” Schaub, who finished with xx kills in the win over Lawson State, said. “The second game was a very tough battle the entire game. Even though we lost, I thought we played very well.”
Boggs said the two matches were different as the second match, the Cougars kept digging themselves holes and it was hard to climb out of the holes.
“The first game today, we were working very well together. We had great cohesive and positive energy,” she said. “During the second game, we were lacking in energy and kept finding ourselves in a hole at the start of the game.”
That first match with Lawson was epic with plenty of fight. WNCC finished with 64 kills with three players with double-figure kills. Cordero’s 23 led the way followed by Schaub with 16 and Anuhea Kaohi with 14. WNCC hit .260 for the match.
A big key in the win was the team’s serving. The Cougars finished with eight total aces and Alex Hernandez finished with seven aces and 20 points. Boggs also had 10 points with an ace, while Kaohi had nine points and two aces.
WNCC also blocked well, finishing with one solo and 10 assist blocks. Hernandez had the solo block and three assists, while Kaohi, Schaub, and Angel Nahinu each had two assisted blocks.
Andrea Tsvetanova had 12 set assists and Boggs tallied 41 set assists.
WNCC dropped the first set 25-19 and not much to talk about as they never could get any big runs together.
The second set started out scary, too, as Lawson jumped to a 4-1 lead and led 5-3. With the score tied at 8-8. Kaohi went to work. Nahinu got the serve back with a kill and then Kaohi served eight straight points to put the Cougars up 17-8. WNCC kept pushing the gas pedal as Holleigh Jaime served two points for a 21-10 lead and then Boggs had an ace serve to lead 23-12. After a Cordero kill, Hernandez served the final point for the 25-14 win.
The third set was one WNCC should have won. Lawson jumped to a 6-1 led before Hernandez served five straight points to put WNCC up 7-6. Lawson State went back up 11-7 and led 16-10 and won 25-22 to take a 2-1 set lead.
The fourth set WNCC picked it up again as Hernandez had two service points for a 7-2 lead and led 11-6 after a Kaohi point. WNCC led 15-12 when Cordero hit a kill and then Hernandez went to work behind the service line, serving five points for a 21-12 lead. WNCC won 25-20 on a Schaub kill setting up a fifth set.
The fifth set was all WNCC. The score was tied at 2-2 early, but Boggs served four points to put the Cougars up 7-2. Later, Hernandez served two points for a 10-3 lead. Lawson State sliced the deficit to three at 10-7, but two kills from Cordero and the final kill by Schaub gave WNCC the 15-9 win.
That set up WNCC against the home-standing Grizzlies. WNCC competed, but Schaub said the difference between games was their bodies might have been a little tired from the hard match they played Friday morning.
“The difference between the first and second game was probably just that our bodies were more tired,” Schaub said.
The first set was the big difference of the match with MSU-West Plains. WNCC trailed 8-4 but came back to tie the first set at 8-8 after two Kaohi points. WNCC went up 10-9 on a Jaime point and led 15-13 after a Cordero point.
West Plains came back to go up 17-16 and led 22-19. West Plains led 24-21, but WNCC kept fighting. Schaub got a kill and Mariah Fukumoto had three points for the 25-24 lead. West Plains came back to get the first set 27-25.
The second set saw West Plains lead 5-1 and later 12-8. WNCC cut the lead 15-11, but West Plains went back in front 18-11 and the Grizzlies went on to win 25-18.
The third set was a battle. WNCC led 5-1 after four Boggs’ points. West Plains came back to grab a 10-8 lead only to see WNCC go back to tie it at 10-10 on a Schaub kill and Jaime point. WNCC led 12-11 on a Hernandez kill and point.
West Plains came back to lead 17-13 and later 18-15. WNCC cut the lead to one point several times at 18-17, 19-18, and 21-20. The last time was on a Jaime point and Cordero kill. West Plains went back on top 22-20 but WNCC answered to trail 22-21. West Plains closed out the match with the final three points to move on in the tournament.
WNCC had a lot of big highlights in the match. Schaub led the way with 11 kills followed by Cordero with 10 and Kaohi with nine. Hernandez had six kills and Nahinu had three. WNCC finished with 10 blocks, led by Nahinu with three assisted blocks. Jaime led the way with 12 digs followed by nine each from Anabelle Gillen and Hernandez.
Boggs had 36 set assists in the match along with five points. Jaime also had five points while Cordero, Hernandez, and Fukumoto each had four points.
For a lot of seniors, it will be a sad day as they played their final match in a Cougar uniform. Schaub said it is hard to take off the blue and gold for the final time.
“I am sad that my time as a Cougar has come to an end, but I am looking forward to the future,” she said. “I will miss my teammates and coaches so much next year.”
