After three weeks on the road, the Western Nebraska Community College men's and women's soccer teams will be home for four straight matches beginning this weekend.
The Cougar women and men will host Northeastern Junior College on Friday and then Lamar Community College on Saturday in two of the team's four home matches over the next two weekends. The Cougars only have four regular season home matches this year slated with the next two home matches September 23 and 24.
Friday's soccer contests begin at 1 p.m. for the Cougar women and 3:30 p.m. for the Cougar men with the same start times for Saturday.
WNCC freshman Natalya Baird-Watson, from New South Wales, Australia, said the team is excited to be at home and they have been working hard this week.
"The team has been putting in the work week in and week out and I know we all want to win because we have that drive and determination as a team," Baird-Watson said. "Last weekend wasn't our best performance however, we went back and accessed our strengths and weaknesses as a team. We are all ready for this weekend's first home games of the season. I couldn't be more excited."
For the Cougar women to add more conference wins to their already impressive record, Baird-Watson said they need to execute the game plan.
"To come away with the win this weekend, we need to apply what we have been working on and execute the game plan," she said. "Most importantly, we need to be confident, cohesive and positive and I think that's what will push us over the edge to get the win."
The Cougars already have faced Northeastern Junior College this season in non-conference tilts. Friday's contests will count in the conference standings.
The Cougar women defeated the Plainswomen on August 28 at Sterling, Colorado, 4-2. In that match, freshman Tania Razo score two goals and Lesley Vasquez and Andrea Jimenez each had one goal.
"NJC would be considered our rival opponents ever since I've been here. Whenever we face this team, we play the game with personal matters. The game normally gets pretty intense and when we face them it's usually a challenge," Jimenez said. "The first time we faced them we got scored on first but we bounced back with 4 goals in total. Despite our results, we will be coming strong in this game!"
The Cougar men weren't so lucky in the first meeting against Northeastern, falling 1-0 on a goal in the 73rd minute.
Then, on Saturday, the Cougars will face a Region IX school in conference action when Lamar comes to town. It is Lamar's first year of having soccer. The Runnin' Lopes women's team are 1-2 on the season having beat Hesston College 2-0 before losing conference games to Northwest 3-0 and Casper 2-0.
The Lamar men are 0-5 this season and have been outscored 24-5 so far this season. The Lamar men are 0-2 in conference play, falling last weekend to Northwest 3-1 and Casper 7-1.
The Cougar men are 1-3 and the Cougar women are 4-2 on the season. In conference play, the Cougar men are 1-0 while the women are 1-1.
Jimenez said they don't know much about Lamar, but they just need to worry about themselves.
"This is a new team in the conference and we haven't faced them yet," she said. "Regardless of who we face this year we have to keep in mind that every game is a fresh start. It doesn't matter what previous games we won because it's the present that guides us towards the Region 9 tournament."