The top-ranked Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team secured the No. 1 seed for the Region IX tournament with a straight-game win over McCook Community College Wednesday at Cougar Palace.
The Cougars, in registering the 25-7, 25-7, 25-13 win over McCook, recorded their 20th straight win. WNCC is now 33-3 on the season and a 9-0 in South Region IX play with one conference match left when they travel to face Northeastern Junior College on Oct. 28.
More impressively, the win showcased the depth the Cougars possess as three different players played libero as well as setter. All 14 members of the team saw action in the contest.
Keala Kaio-Perez, who usually plays libero, started at rightside hitter Wednesday and finished with 10 kills. Kaio-Perez also had five digs from her libero position. Kaio-Perez said this was one of the best performances they have had this season.
"Today we played like a number one ranked team," the sophomore from Hawaii said. "We played good. We had less errors. Our passing was good. Our hitting was good. Everything was just perfect."
Just how perfect were the Cougars on the night? WNCC finished the contest with 43 kills and had only seven hitting errors as a team. Kaio-Perez and Jady Gerotto paced the team with 10 kills each while Barbara Rabanal had nine. Santanna Mitchell also chipped in five kills, while Shaney Tiumalu had four, and Kennedy Cyza had two.
Wednesday night was a night that bought smiles to the Cougar players after the game in the way they played. Kaio-Perez said everyone was on.
"Everybody was clicking today. Every position was just solid," she said.
The impressive performance also reminded Kaio-Perez and the rest of the team that is the way Cougar volleyball should be played.
"That is the way we should be playing all the time," Kaio-Perez, who had her grandma from Hawaii in the audience, said. "We expect a lot from us because we started the season number seven at the beginning of the season and now we are number one and we want to be number one going into nationals."
It was a pretty dominating performance by the Cougars on the night from the get-go. The Cougars dominated games one and two with strong play all the way around. The first two games was turned around with strong serving.
Fabiana Andrade started the first game with eight straight points for an 8-0 lead. Later, Lara Picht had six straight points for a 22-5 lead before WNCC won 22-7.
McCook actually had a brief 2-1 lead in the second game and trailed 4-3 early. Rabanal, however changed that with a kill and then served four points behind kills from Kaio-Perez and Kaylee Spreier for a 9-3 lead.
McCook stopped the streak momentarily with a sideout. Kaio-Perez then hammered home a kill and that was when Spreier went on a 12-point service run that included two aces serves for a 22-4 lead. WNCC won the second game on a Katy Ernest service point.
The third game was all WNCC as Gerotto had a three point run for a 5-3 lead and WNCC pushed the lead to 11-4 on two Kaio-Perez points. WNCC led 16-9 and then Tiumalu went on a five-point run for a 22-9 lead. WNCC won the match on a Mitchell kill.
While the team was hitting at a high percentage, they were also strong in the service game, recording 10 aces. Andrade led the way with three aces, followed by Spreier, Rabanal, and Gerotto each with three. Six Cougar players also finished with six or more points. Spreier led with 12 points while Andrade tallied 10. Rabanal and Gerotto each had seven, followed by Tiumalu and Picht each with six.
Andrade also tallied 31 set assists while Ernest had four, and Maraea O'Connor had two.
Defensively, Fautino Manu had nine digs, followed by Alwaise Villa with six, Rabanal and Kaio-Perez with five, and Andrade had four.
WNCC will finish off the home portion of the regular season this weekend when they host the Lady Cougar Classic. Friday's schedule has WNCC facing Laramie County Community College at 1 p.m. and then Eastern Wyoming College at 7 p.m. The EWC game will be sophomore recognition in honoring the five sophomores – Andrade, Kaio-Perez, Manu, Mitchell, and Ernest.
Other games on Friday will have Iowa Western Community College taking on Eastern Wyoming at 3 p.m. and then LCCC meeting Iowa Western at 5 p.m.
Saturday's schedule has two matches slated with Northeastern Junior College meeting Iowa Western at 10 a.m. and then a match-up of two top-five ranked teams at 1 p.m. between No. 1 WNCC and No. 4 Iowa Western.