The 6th-ranked Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team took care of business over the weekend as they swept a pair of Region IX South contests on Friday and Saturday.
The Cougars opened the weekend with a 25-12, 25-20, 25-22 win over Trinidad State College and then swept past Otero College 25-7, 25-18, 25-21 to stay unbeaten in conference play and move their record to 24-3 on the season.
It was the Cougars seventh straight win as they head into a conference match on Wednesday when they travel to McCook Community College.
Saturday saw Shanelle Martinez register a triple double in helping the Cougars to the sweep. Martinez finished with 26 points, 34 set assists, 14 digs, three aces, and a kill.
The match started early as Martinez served up 10 straight points for a 10-0 lead. The Cougars pushed the lead to 13-1 after two AK Chavez points and then went up 17-3 after two Ale Meoni kills.
WNCC led 20-7 when Erica Fava hammered down a kill and Martinez served the final four points for the 25-7 win.
The second and third sets were much closer. The second set saw Otero trail 9-8 and later 13-11 before the Cougars started to put some distance in the score when Fava had two points for a 16-11 lead. WNCC won 25-18 after three Chavez points.
The third set saw Otero lead 8-3 before a kill from Jenna Curtis and then three Alex Hernandez points to tie the contest at 8-8. Otero kept playing strong as the Rattlers led 16-15 and later 20-18 and 21-19. Emmalei Mapu got a kill and then Martinez closed out the match with five points.
After Martinez' triple double, Fava and Curtis each had 11 kills. Fava also had six digs and two assisted blocks, while Curtis had eight digs.
Meoni hammered down seven kills to go with her two points, while Mapu had five kills, five assisted blocks, and three digs.
Also for the Cougars, Chavez had 12 digs with seven points, five set assists, and two aces; Juliana Oliveira had four kills; Hernandez had three kills and four points; Bewley had a dig; and Paige Nakanelua had two digs.