It is back to the Final Four for the Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team after capturing two wins on the first day of the NJCAA Division I volleyball tournament in Casper, Wyoming.

                The Cougars opened the day by sweeping Yavapai College 25-13, 25-13, 25-20 and then earned a four-game win over Missouri State-West Plains 25-19, 22-25, 25-20, 25-21.

                The wins move the Cougars to 41-4 on the year. More importantly, the Cougars are headed back to familiar territory – the Final Four – where they have been 10 of the last 12 years.

                WNCC will look to reach the finals with a matchup with Region IX North champion Northwest College, who beat Polk College in four games. First serve for the semifinal matchup is set for 6:30 p.m. with the winner advancing to the finals Saturday at 6:30 p.m.

                The other semifinal will pit top-seed College of Southern Idaho against No. 5-seed Hillsborough. Southern Idaho swept Blinn while Hillsborough swept Iowa Western.

                The WNCC and Northwest match will be the third time the two Region IX teams have played this year. WNCC won both. Still, it will be a dandy match with two top-three nationally ranked teams. Freshman Maraea O'Connor said it feels good to be in the final four, but they want to keep going.

                "I am so excited [to be going to the final four]," O'Connor said. "It feels like everything has paid off. We worked so hard to get here and finally it is all coming together and we are playing like a team."

                The win against Missouri State-West Plains was definitely a team effort as a number of players contributed in different ways.

                "It is really important to have a lot of people step up because volleyball is a team sport," O'Connor said. "I think everyone did their job tonight and didn't have a lot of mistakes. We kept pushing and talking. In the back of our head we just wanted to win and get a national championship."

                  The big key in the win was hitting. In the game they lost, the Cougars hit a dismal .143. The other three games the hitting was quite impressive. The first game, the Cougars hit .433, the third game .333, and the fourth game .321

                Overall, the Cougars managed 56 kills. Barbara Rabanal Briceno led the Cougars with a double-double of 18 kills and 15 digs. WNCC also got hitting support from Jady Gerotto with 13 kills, Lara Picht with 11, O'Connor with nine, Kaylee Spreier with three, and Fabiana Andrade with two.

                Andrade also dished out 42 assists. But Andrade wasn't the only one putting up assists as O'Connor had three, Spreier and Keala Kaio-Perez each had two, and Gerotto and Briceno each had one.

                O'Connor said they played really well today.

                "I think we played really well today," she said. "We finally played all together and came together and worked our hardest. We executed as many plays as we could and was successful."

                And the Cougars did play well. The Missouri State-West Plains match was not easy but the Cougars found plenty of energy in the three games that they won.

                In the opening game, the teams were tied at 12-12 when O'Connor went on a four-point service run for a 17-12 lead. WNCC pushed the lead to 23-17 after two Andrade points and won the game on a Briceno kill.

                The second game Missouri State-West Plains opened up a 4-1 lead  and led 15-8. WNCC came back to slice the lead to 20-19 on a Biriceno ace serve. The Cougars , however, couldn't get the lead to fall in the game.

                The third game was also tight for much of the game. West Plains led 13-11 at one point and each team was also tied at 16-16 when WNCC started to pick things up. Biriceno had two straight aces and put WNCC up 20-16. The Cougars then got two points from Gerotto and Biriceno hit a kill to win 25-20.

                The fourth game was all WNCC as Kaio-Perez had three points for put WNCC up 8-2. WNCC led 11-7 and later 16-12. The Cougars pushed the lead to 20-12 on three O'Connor points. West Plains came back cutting the lead to 22-19, but WNCC finished off the match at 25-21.

                WNCC also had a strong service match with nine aces, led by Andrade with four and iriceno with three. Kaio-Perez and O'Connor each had one.

                WNCC also received solo blocks from Biriceno, O'Connor, and Gerotto.

                Digs was also a highlight for the Cougars, led by Briceno's 15 followed closely behind by Kaio-Perez with 13.

                O'Connor said they have to play well tomorrow to move into the title match.

                "Tomorrow {Friday] we are going to keep playing our game," she said. "We are going to play with passion and play Cougar volleyball."