RIVERTON, Wyo. – The 12-ranked Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team received double-doubles from Karen Cordero and Anuhea Kaohi as the Cougars topped Central Wyoming College at the Central Invite Saturday morning in Riverton, Wyoming.
The win was WNCC's sixth straight and moves the Cougars to 6-1 on the season as they get ready to head to the McCook tournament next weekend.
After the team went 3-0 this weekend, head coach Binny Canales has now won over 200 games as a head coach at WNCC. His 200th win as the Cougar head coach came Friday night when the Cougars defeated College of Southern Idaho.
Saturday's win over the host team was closely contested with neither team getting more than a three or four-point lead throughout the night.
The first set saw WNCC go up 12-9 on a Macey Boggs serve only to watch the Rustlers come storming back to tie the set at 12. The two teams jockeyed points the rest of the way. WNCC was a set point at 24-23 on a Cordero kill, but Central Wyoming tied it at 24. Cordero responded with another kill and then Andrea Tsvetanova served the final point to give the Cougars the 26-24 win.
The second set started out much the same as the first. This time, though, Central Wyoming held an 11-8 lead only to watch Tsvetanova serve three points to put the Cougars up 12-11. Central Wyoming battle back to grab a 13-12 lead and later had set point at 24-23.
Cordero stopped the Rustler scoring streak with a point and then served two points to the Cougars up 25-24. Then went back and forth with the score tied at 26. Alex Hernandez hammered home kill and then served the final point to give WNCC the second set win 28-26.
Just like the first two, the third set started out the same way as both teams were tied at four. WNCC had a 9-6 lead and led 15-11. Things changed after that as Central Wyoming, trailing 16-14, went on a 7-0 run to lead 21-16 and cruised to the 25-19 win.
The four set saw both teams, for the fourth straight set, knotted at 4-4. After a Kaohi kill, Boggs served four points for a 9-4 lead. WNCC kept the offensive humming as Anabelle Gillen served three points for a 15-7 lead.
Central Wyoming sliced the lead to three points at 19-16, but WNCC registered a kill and then Kaohi served four points for a 24-16 lead before winning 25-17.
Cordero led the Cougars with a double of 21 kills and 19 digs with two aces. Kaohi had 18 kills and 14 digs, while Hernandez finished with seven kills, 13 digs, six points and three aces. Also for the Cougars, Olivia Schaub had three kills, three solo blocks, and seven digs; Tsvetanova had eight digs, nine points, and 53 set assists; Gillen had 10 digs and five points; Boggs had three digs and nine points; and Angel Nahinu had six digs.