CASPER, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team is one win away from the program's third national championship, advancing to the finals of the NJCAA national tournament in Casper, Wyoming.
The Cougars road to the finals was pretty dominating as they swept past No. 3 Northwest College in staggering fashion 25-27, 25-22, 25-12 to advance to the their fifth championship game since 2006. WNCC is 2-2 in title contests so far, capturing titles in 2007 and 2010.
Southern Idaho and WNCC are no strangers at the national tournament either. CSI captured the title last season and defeated the Cougars in 2012 for the championship.
Friday's semifinals were pretty dominating shows by both the No. 1 and No. 2 seeded teams. CSI swept past No. 5 Hillsborough Community College 25-14, 25-15, 25-23, finishing just a few minutes before WNCC steamrolled past the Trappers in the third game.
Fabiana Andrade, who tallied 28 set assists and 14 digs in the win, said this is unreal that they will be playing for a national title.
"I am so excited and I really can't explain how I feel," the sophomore setter said. "We deserve this so much and we are working so hard. It is an amazing feeling"
This team is on a mission this season. The Cougars, with the win, moved to 42-4 on the season. And, the sophomores remember last year at nationals where they lost in the first round. Andrade said this team this year is amazing.
"I feel we are doing so much better than last year so right now playing for the final makes me feel, I don't know, I can't explain it," she said. " We just have a lot of energy going right now and we are positive and everything is working."
Indeed things are working. WNCC showed not only dominance at times, but a will to fight back. And, with every big kill or block or pancake save, the team celebrated with screams, high fives, and plenty of emotion.
The Cougars started quick by grabbing a 9-2 lead in the first game behind five points from Maraea O'Connor. WNCC doubled up Northwest 16-8 on three Fauntino Manu points and then went up double digits, 20-9 on a Kaylee Spreier kill and three Keala Kaio-Perez points. WNCC won the first game with electricity after making two pancake saves to get the ball over and then one the point on a double block.
WNCC started the second game with a 6-1 lead as Manu had five points. Northwest came back to grab an 11-7 lead and led 16-14. WNCC finally tied the game at 16-16. Northwest retook the lead,momentarily, but Barbara Briceno hammered home a kill and Kaio=Perez had three points for a 20-17 lead.
Northwest sliced the lead to 22-21 but WNCC won the second game on a Northwest missed serve.
In fact, errors were costly to the Trappers, as they committed 39 for the game compared to just 20 for WNCC.
WNCC's dominance in the Northwest match was especially huge in the third game where the Cougars took control. WNCC hit .480 in the third game, knocking down 14 kills with just two hitting errors.
And it was close, too, in the third at the beginning with WNCC holding an 11-9 lead. After that, WNCC cranked up the heat as Maraea O'Connor had five service points behind three kills from Barbara Briceno to lead 17-9. Briceno added two ace serves later for a 21-10 lead and WNCC cruised to the win behind back-to-back kills from Lara Picht.
Andrade said they played well.
"We are playing very, very hard and we wanted to win," she said. "Our block was amazing and we knew what to do. One thing I love about my team is that they are so amazing and the hitters are amazing that I can set to."
WNCC also had a strong serving match, recording three aces followed by two from Andrade and one each form O'Connor and Kaio-Perez.
Andrade also had 28 set assists and 14 digs. Also for the Cougars, O'Connor had four set assists; Kaio-Perez had 10 digs; Manu had 10 digs, and Katy Ernest had three digs.