Destiny Mueller scored twice and the Western Nebraska Community College women's soccer team wrapped up the regular season with a 3-1 win over Northeastern Junior College Tuesday at Landers Soccer Complex.
Mueller was proud of her team of the way they played after earning a tie with Casper on Friday.
"I am really proud of my team today for all the hard work that we have done to get to where we're at right now," she said.
Mueller, a Gering High graduate, said the team stayed connected as a team, especially in the first half to get the victory.
"We played really connected as a team in the first half," she said. "We played on our front foot to get a 3 to 1 lead."
The first half was huge for the Cougar women, who improved to 5-5-2 on the season as they get ready to compete in a Region IX Tournament First-round game this weekend.
"In the first half we played really strong," Mueller said. "We were winning the 1V1 balls and we were shutting them down in the middle."
The Cougars dominated the first half with plenty of shots on goal and three of them which went into the net.
WNCC scored just 15 minutes off the clock when Ana Caroline Lopes scored when she took the corner kick and the ball curved into the net for the opening goal of the match.
The score stayed at 1-0 for nearly 20 minutes. With 12 minutes left in the first half, Mueller punched the ball into the net from about three yards from the goal to put WNCC up 2-0.
The Cougars weren't finished scoring as Andrea Jimenez dished off a beauty of a pass to Mueller who hammered the ball into the goal from around the top of the box for the 3-0 lead with 8:40 to play in the half. That is where the score stood at halftime.
The second half saw the Cougars' goalkeeper make about three or four stellar saves in net, one of which was a shot at point-blank range, which Ana Von Ruden snatched up into her grips. NJC has plenty more shots on goal for the half, but Von Ruden stopped most of them.
The one that snuck by, with 6:05 to play in the contest, was a shot by NJC freshman Valeria Perez to make the score 3-1. That was all either team got the rest of the way as the Cougars picked up the win.
NJC had 13 shots in the contest while WNCC finished with 15.
Von Ruden had seven saves in net for the Cougars.
WNCC finished with four corner kicks to five for NJC.
WNCC will await to see where they will head for a Saturday first-round match. Pairings depend on a contest that was played today. Mueller said they need to stay connected to win the opening tournament match and move into the semifinals the following weekend.
"Our goal is to go all the way and it will take us more communication, playing together, and working up at top to make it to the semi-finals," she said.