WNCC soccer teams set for home openers this weekend

Posted: Sep 14, 2016

After three weekends on the road, the Western Nebraska Community College men's and women's soccer teams will be hosting Region IX matches at the Landers Soccer Complex Friday and Saturday.

It will be the first home matches of the year and important contests, too, when the Cougars entertain Sheridan College on Friday and Northwest College on Saturday. The women will kick off at 1 p.m. both days followed by the men's contest.

Scottsbluff graduate Morgan Smith is excited to be at home after five matches on the road.

"We are very excited four our home games," Smith said. "We have definitely improved since our alumni game and I think we are ready for our friends and family to watch and see our improvement."

Both opponents will be salty opposition for the Cougars. The Sheridan women's contest looks to be a brutal battle. Sheridan, who are 1-2 overall, battled Otero and Trinidad State to the end. The Generals topped Trinidad 2-1 in overtime before falling to Otero 1-0.

The Cougar women also played Region IX leading teams to close matches. The WNCC women tied Trinidad 1-1 after two overtimes and lost to Otero 2-0.

"These two matches coming up are super important because we get to see two more teams from our region," Smith said. "Sheridan beat Trinidad, who we tied, so that game will be a good fight. It'll be nice to see where we stand in the region since we will have played all the team besides LCCC."

The WNCC women are definitely among a contender for a top seed in the regional tournament and this weekend will be a determining factor. Otero leads Region IX at 4-1 followed by Trinidad (3-1-1) and LCCC and Western Wyoming (2-1). The Cougars are 1-1-1 and two wins this weekend would vault them to among the top.

But, for the Cougar women to win, they must finish.

"The key to victory for this weekend is that we just need to come out and fight and never let down," Smith said. "One of our problems in our past games is that we can't finish in the final third so that is something we hope to accomplish this weekend."

The Cougar women have been a pleasant surprise this season, considering they have been banged up in August. Now, they are putting the pieces together.

"We are definitely improved from day one," Smith said. "We are starting to learn how to play with each other better than when we started. We obviously still need improvement on many things, but I think we are starting to fall right into where we need to be."

The Cougar men also need to play well in these two key Region IX contests. So far this year, the men have been 50-50, having split matches the previous two weekends. Last weekend in the Cougar men's first conference games of the season, the Cougars fell to NJC 2-1 before beating Central-Columbus 3-0.

These two matches this weekend will tell a lot of where the men stand. Both Northwest and Sheridan enter play at 0-1, while the Cougars are at 1-1.

LCCC and Western Wyoming lead the North Conference at 2-0 records. Two wins this weekend will give the Cougars some momentum heading into the rest of the season.

Women's Soccer Region IX Standings

Team Conf. Overall

Otero 4-1 5-1

Trinidad 3-1-1 3-1-1

Laramie County 2-1 3-1-1

Western Wyoming 2-1 2-4

WNCC 1-1-1 2-1-2

Sheridan 1-2 1-2

Northwest 1-2 1-2

NJC 0-5 1-7

Men's Soccer Region IX Standings

North Division