The 11th-ranked Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team returned home after a month on the road and gave the spectators an impressive win over Lamar Community College in straight sets 25-19, 25-16, 25-13 in a South Sub-region match at Cougar Palace Friday night.
Mariah Fukamoto, who had nine digs and 12 points, said it was a good team win for the 15-4 Cougars.
"I thought the team played really good," the freshman from Hawaii said. "I would say our passes were pretty good and our sets were really good. I say the hitters really executed on the sets really well. We played as a team and we were out there to have fun."
The Cougars opened the season at home with a crossover tournament but fans were not allowed. After four weeks on the road playing, the players were excited to play in front of their home crowd.
Fukamoto said for her and some of the others, it was nerve racking never have played in front of the home crowd before.
"It was kind of scary because this was my first time playing on this court in a home game [with spectators]," she said. "I was nervous and so was everyone because fans make people nervous. We just wanted to show everyone that we could do it and we can beat teams if we play to our full potential."
They had a pretty balanced attack, too. Fukamoto said it was a team win.
"Even the people subbing in, they did their part really good," she said. "We did what we had to do. Everyone just played really good today."
The first set was close at the start as WNCC had an 8-4 lead on two Macey Boggs points before Lamar sliced the lead to 8-7. That was when Fukamoto served four points with Olivia Schaub hammering home three kills for a 13-7 lead.
WNCC went up 18-8 after four Anabelle Gillen points WNCC led 23-11 when Alex Hernandez served three points. WNCC stalled out as Lamar came clawing back, cutting the lead to 24-19. That was as close as the Lopes got as the Gering High connection took over as Boggs sat Schaub for the set winner 25-19.
The second set started close as the two teams were knotted at 4-4. Schaub got a kill and then Fukamoto served five straight points, including a double block from Andrea Tsvetanova and Alex Hernandez for an 11-4 lead.
WNCC won the second set 25-16 after two Hernandez points.
Tsvetanova started the third set with a 4-0 lead. Lamar cut the deficit to 8-4 only to watch WNCC got up 15-5 after two Fukamoto points and three from Gillen. WNCC led 18-10 when Holleigh Jaime served three points for a 22-10 lead. Elli Winkler got a kill to make it 24-12 and then Anuhea Kaohi had the match-ending kill.
WNCC had three players hit double-figure kills. Schaub and Kaohi each had 13 kills while Hernandez had 11. Hernandez also had eight digs and seven points with two aces. Kaohi had four digs.
Also for the Cougars, Boggs finished with six set assists, two digs, and two points; Tsvetnova had 28 set assists, four digs, and two points; Angel Nahinu had two kills; Hyleigh Fornstrom had three kills; Winkler had three kills; Jaime had three digs and four points; and Gillen had five digs and nine points.
WNCC will be back in action for another South Sub-region contest Saturday night in Sterling, Colorado, when they face No. 14 Northeastern Junior College at 7:30 p.m. Fukamoto said they need to bring a lot more energy Saturday night.
"We have to come in with more energy because today we had energy but it wasn't as good," she said. "I know our passes have to be on point because then the sets will be on point and the hits will be on point and that will help us get more points against NJC. They are a really tough team and they have really good blockers and hitters."