The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team finished with eight aces while sweeping past Lamar Community College 25-17, 25-20, 25-14 Friday night at Cougar Palace in a Region IX South conference contest.

                The win pushes the second-ranked Cougars to 28-3 on the season. WNCC will wrap up the 3-day home stand Saturday when they host Trinidad State Junior College at 1 p.m. in a homecoming match. Before the match there will be a tailgate party with Runza, music, and games.

                Friday's contest, though, was one where the Cougars started slow in the first game and warmed up after that. Alwaise Villa said the team needs to learn to come out with more energy in the first game.

                "I think we started off a little slow but as we started pushing ourselves altogether, we started turning each on and realized that that little things count," the sophomore defensive specialist from Hawaii said. "It is really important to start right away because a lot of conference teams are alright but they are not as good as teams that we probably will go up against at nationals. If we continue to start slow, then we have to continue to catch up like we did last night [Thursday against Otero] and some today."

                Friday's match saw plenty of even play among the Cougars. WNCC finished with 40 kills and five assisted blocks. Barbara Briceno led the team with 11 kills followed by Lara Picht with nine, Brooke Kaawa with eight, Kaylee Spreier with seven, and Joise Maldonado with five. Kaawa also led the team with three assist blocks.

                Defensively, the Cougars were versatile as well. Kaawa led the way with 11 digs followed with four players with five, including Genesis Benitez, Bia Berti, Picht, and Villa. Briceno and Spreier each had four digs.

                But, it was the serving line that stood out with the Cougars recording eight aces. Briceno finished with three aces with her four points. Picht had two aces, while Kaawa, Spreier, and Villa all had one. Spreier led the way with 11 points followed by Villa with seven, and Kaawa with five.

                Berti had 25 set assists, while Danika Daum had three and Kaawa had two.

                The first game saw WNCC jump to an 11-6 lead before Lamar sliced the lead to 16-14. The Cougars regrouped as Briceno hammered home a kill to make it 22-17 and Spreier finished off the first game with three points.

                The second game started the same way with WNCC letting Lamar hang around, only leading 9-7. WNCC pushed the lead to 16-10 on a Kaawa kill and led 18-12 on a Villa point. Lamar came back to cut the lead to 20-18 and later 22-20. WNCC came back as Picht served the final two points for the 25-20 win.

                The third game was all WNCC. The Cougars led 5-3 when Villa served three points for a 9-3 lead. Spreier later made it 19-9 with five points and the Cougars cruised to the win.