McCOOK – Amryi-Grace Paris and Sarena Bartley combined for 29 kills and the No. 19 Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team overcame a bad first set to register a four-set 17-25, 25-19, 25-23, 28-26 Region IX South conference win over McCook Community College Friday evening in McCook.
The win was the Cougars ninth straight win. WNCC finished the South sub-region at 9-1 and pushed their overall record to 23-7 with three matches next week to wrap up the regular season. WNCC travels to Cheyenne to face Laramie County Community College on Tuesday before hosting Sheridan College on Thursday and then No. 2 Iowa Western Community College Friday.
The McCook showed plenty of fight in the Cougars. After falling 25-17 in the first set, the Cougars had to battle back in the second set. That they did, grabbing a 20-14 lead before holding on for a 25-19 win behind two Adia Sherbeyn service points.
WNCC led from start to finish in the third set. The two squads were tied early on before WNCC went to 13-9 on three Ana Costas service points and WNCC led 21-15. McCook battled back slicing the lead to 21-20, but the Cougars won the third 25-23 on a Kaile Tuisamatatele kill.
The fourth set saw McCook lead 15-6 at tone time before Sherbeyn served three points to bring WNCC back to 15-10. The Cougars climbed back to within one, 21-20 on two Jayme Commins service points and took first lead of the set at 25-24 on two Enna Masaki points. WNCC won 28-26.
Paris and Bartley had big offensive nights for the Cougars. Paris finished with 15 kills while Bartley had 14. Masaki finished with nine kills followed by Tuisamatatele with eight, and Lesley Mamai-Lagafuaina with seven.
Also for WNCC, Commins finished with 42 set assists, nine points, two aces, and eight digs; Masaki had five digs and five points; Sherbeyn had 13 digs, seven points, and two aces; Camille Esselin had four digs and two points; Ana Costas had 14 digs and nine points; Logan Belford had two digs; and Gaby Canavati had two kills and two digs.