The Cougars, who have won their last three matches while scoring a combined 12 goals, will face the No. 1 seed Otero Junior College at 12 noon on Friday. The other first round contest will pit No. 2 Laramie County Community College facing No. 3 Utah State-Eastern at 2:30. The winners will compete for the regional title and a berth at the national tournament Nov. 19-21 in Florida.

                The Cougar players are ready for the challenge as they try to bring home the program's third regional title. The last time WNCC won regionals was 2008.

                "I honestly think we are really prepared," freshman Shelby Neubert said. "Granted we won't be ready for everything because no team is ready for anything, but we are going to be ready for the most part. We are getting down our passes and our one touches.

                WNCC has been playing some of its best ball in the last three matches, topping Western Wyoming, Northwest Kansas Tech, and Trinidad State with dominating performances. WNCC scored four goals in all four wins, including dropping Trinidad State in the first-round play-in match on Halloween at the Landers Soccer Complex.

                Neubert said this team is starting to show what they are capable of.

                "I think we are starting to pick it up," she said. "You miss 100 percent of the shots that you don't take so we just need to take shots. If we keep it up with everyone connecting their passes and moving as a team, we will get those shots on goal."

                That is definitely what they have been doing. Against Western Wyoming, Rhiannon Castle had a hat trick to power the Cougars. In the wins against Northwest Tech and Trinidad, Kennedy Lawes totaled two goals each in the matches.

                Lawes leads the team with 14 goals this season followed by Castle with nine. Freshmen Eden Washington has chipped in five and Janie McAmis has four.

                A big reason for the sudden goal scoring is what Neubert said, they are starting to make precision passes and it shows with the number of players picking up assists. Lawes, Isabel Hunter, and Aiyanna Grubac lead the team in assists with five each followed by Castle with four, and Washington, Hannah Wilke, and Chelsey Keefer with three each.

                But, like anything, this is a new season – the post season. Neubert said she expects this to be a battle, just like the first two times they played.

                "It will be a tougher game than Trinidad," she said. "In all honestly, we know this team real well. We played against them and we can go head-to-head with them, it is just a matter who wants it more."

                In fact the previous two matches were dandies. WNCC topped Otero over Labor Day weekend 2-0 as McAmis and Lawes had second half goals.

                In the match played the end of September in LaJunta, Colorado, the Rattlers took a 2-0 before McAmis scored to slice the lead to 2-1 at halftime. Castle then scored the equalizer in the second half for the tie.

                Neubert said while her team has been playing games the last two weeks and Otero not, that should help. But, she knows Otero will be ready to give 100 percent.

                "[Having played] does give us kind of an upper hand because we have been on our touch and we have been playing consistently," she said. "Where Otero has been off, in a way they could be out of touch, but I know for a fact they have been training just has hard."

                Otero enters with an 11-2-s record while the Cougars have a 9-4-1 record. More importantly, another win will give the Cougars double figure wins for the first time in six years. Before that, WNCC registered double figure wins in 2008, 2009, and 2010.

                Neubert and the rest of the team would love to bring home another regional title and the soccer program's first trip to the national tournament. The Cougars won regionals in 2003 and 2008, but fell in the district tournament.

                Neubert said it would mean a lot.

                "I think it would be huge for the program and school," she said. "It would show other four year colleges to look at our girls because we do have great players and it is just a matter of the other school recognizing that. Si, if we bring this home, it would help the other four-year schools and other athletes be recognized."        

                NOTES: For anyone attending the regional tournament in Westminster, Colorado, the matches will be played at Legacy High School's north stadium 12500 Delaware Dr., Westminster, right off I-25 & 120.