The Western Nebraska Community College men's and women's soccer team will open the season Wednesday when they travel to face Snow College and Salt Lake Community College in contests that should test the Cougar teams against national powers.
Both Cougar teams do look to be improved from a year ago and they will need every ounce of energy when they open against Snow College on Wednesday. The women will play at 1 p.m. followed the men's game at 3 p.m. in Ephraim, Utah.
The Snow men come into the contest having received votes in the NJCAA men's soccer pre-season poll, while the Snow women are ranked 17th in the pre-season polls. The Snow men went 13-6 a year ago, including a 3-1 win over WNCC in Scottsbluff. The Snow women went 17-1-1, suffering their only loss of the season to No. 3 Laramie County Community College.
After Wednesday's contests, WNCC will travel to face Salt Lake Community College on Thursday. The Salt Lake men received votes in the pre-season polls.
WNCC head coach Todd Rasnic said both teams are improved over a year ago. In fact, he believes this year's men's team might be better.
"I still thought last year we were the best team," WNCC head coach Todd Rasnic said. "Even in the game we ended up losing 1-0 to Northeastern Junior College [in the semifinals of regionals] we possessed 80 percent of that game and lost on a counter attack. We just had a little weaknesses last year that kept coming back to bite us and I think we fixed a lot of those issues this year. I am looking for this year to be different and I think we can move forward and have a good shot of being in that Region IX semifinal again and hopefully the result will be the correct one."
Last season the Cougar men set a school record of 12 wins in a season. The previous best was 11 wins set back in the inaugural soccer campaign in 2003.
This year's men's team returns eight players from a year ago, including a pair of leading scorers in Ramses Atahualpa and Silvio Xavier, both from Brazil. Also returning are Thomas Franze and Alan Pinho of Brazil, Juan Garfio of Minatare, Josue Fernandez of Holdrege, Leo Palomo of Kearney, and Viktar Kravets of Aurora, Colorado.
The team has plenty of depth as well.
The freshmen include goalkeepers Leandro Faria and Ruam Barbosa of Brazil, and field players Bryan Mejia and Wilmer Hernandez of Lexington; Gabriel Saturino, Bernando Torres, and Vinicius Viana of Brazil; Oumer Sissoko of Mali; Jens Van Der Woude of the Netherlands; Jack Marin of Colorado Springs, Colorado; Daniel Matty of Norwich, Norfolk; Isaac Sam of Ghana; Jorge Rojas of Denver; Scott Dike of North Platte, and Cade Witmer of Scottsbluff.
The Cougar men opened the season tying the WNCC alumni in a scoreless contest on Aug. 11 before downing Western Wyoming 3-2 on Aug. 18. Scoring goals for the Cougar men last Saturday were Atahualpa with two goals, and Thomas Franze a goal on a penalty kick.
"It will be the same kind of team that we had last year. We processed every game and even Saturday's scrimmage, we processed 60 to 65 percent possession on our part," Rasnic said. "The midfield is strong and with the back line moving forward we are a little bit stronger than last year. We just have to sort out the final third where we are trying to sort out and score. We still have players trying to work out the connection between each other and I think once that is solved, it will help us in a game."
The Cougar women will have plenty of more depth this season from a year ago, where the team won just one contest. This season should feature a little more offense. So far in the preseason, the Cougar women have scored five goals. WNCC topped the WNCC alumni 4-1 on Aug. 11 and then fell to Western Wyoming 3-1 last Saturday.
Rasnic said this team should be better from a year ago.
"Just watching the game [Saturday] we have progressed quite a bit," Rasnic said. "We just need to learn to be quicker and when and how to get in front of the goal to get shots off. We had plenty of shots today [Saturday], and we just have to working on shooting activities in getting them shooting in the right directions and focusing on getting balls away from the keeper. I saw a lot of good signs for the women's team that should carry them into the season and propel them to some victories this season."
The Cougars return just four players that saw playing action a year ago. They include Sydney Heimbouch of Gering; Megan Jarman of South Jordan, Utah; Jordyn Rivera of Ft. Morgan, Colorado; and Tayna Bertani of Brazil. Also back is Rafaela Passos, who sat out a year ago because of an ACL injury.
The freshmen class has plenty of talent. Leading the list is goalkeeper Laramie Lake of Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Melody Kaup of Gering. Kaup is currently sidelined while recovering from an ACL injury.
Other newcomers include Dayeli Limon, Perla Guzman, and Maritza Villaparido of Denver; Rafaela Ornelas, Thais Nayara, and Caroline Vieira of Brazil; Amy Romero and Bethany Fuchs of Aurora, Colorado; Natalie Peterson of Draper, Utah; Lisa Haferkamp of the Netherlands; and Merrissa Espinoza of Scottsbluff.
Rasnic said he is excited to see what the women's team has to offer.
"We are strong in the middle this year and we are starting working on a formation," he said. "We started in one on Saturday and finished in another and I thought the second formation suited the athletes better."
After this weekend's contest, the team will compete in Gillette, Wyoming Sept. 1 and 2.