CASPER, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team finished with eight aces as the Cougars swept Casper College 25-15, 25-17, 25-13 on Tuesday in Casper, Wyoming.
The No. 18 WNCC Cougars move to 21-7 on the season after the non-conference contest. The Cougars will be back in action this weekend when they face Otero College on Friday and Trinidad State College on Saturday in South sub-region contests.
Tuesday’s win was one where the Cougars used strong serving to open up a tight match in all three sets.
The first set saw Casper holding a 6-5 lead before a Finja Schul kill and then three Lilly Zwart kills for a 9-6 lead. Casper knotted the score at 9-9 and it was 17-15 late. That was when WNCC got a block and Taylor Tyser served seven straight points for the 25-15 win that saw the Cougar libero get two ace serves.
The second set was just as close early as Casper led 2-1 and had the game tied three times early. WNCC went up 13-8 on three Nora Marginean points. Tyser pushed the Cougar lead to 19-11 after three points including a monster kill from Zwart. Marginean finished off the second with two service points and the 25-17 win.
The third set saw Casper lead by single points four occasions, the last time at 10-9. That was when WNCC called a timeout and Tamika Eastman hammered a kill after the timeout to get the service back to the Cougars. Marginean then serviced three points for a 13-10 lead and Tyser had four points for a 19-12 lead.
After a sideout by Casper, Ahleejah Tovo-Sunia got a kill and then Zwart went to town behind the service line with five points, including the match-ending setter dump by Marginean for the win.
Tyser and Marginean each had double-doubles in the win. Marginean had 13 points with 30 set assists while Tyser had 14 points with 16 digs.
WNCC tallied 33 kills overall while hitting .256. Finja Schul had 10 kills on a .818 hitting with five blocks, and an ace serve.
Tovo-Sunia and Zwart followed with seven kills each. Zwart also had 11 points with five blocks, while Tovo-Sunia had eight digs.
Eastman finished with four points, five kills, 13 digs, and two aces.
