CASPER, Wyo. – The 4th-ranked Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team had four players with double-figure kills and survived the upset attempt from Casper College in earning the hard-fought five-set win25-23, 22-25, 25-12, 17-25, 15-10 in the first-round of the Region IX tournament Wednesday in Casper.
The win was the Cougar's 30th of the season and 13th straight win, but it didn't come easy as the Cougars had to overcome 27 hitting errors and 11 missed serves to advance to the semifinals of the winner's bracket tournament.
The Cougars advance to play Laramie County Community College Thursday at 4 p.m. with the winner advancing to Friday's championship game at 4 p.m. The Golden Eagles swept past McCook Community College 25-25, 25-18, 25-18.
The other semifinal will pit Central Wyoming College against Northeastern Junior College at 6 p.m. NJC got by Northwest College in four sets 16-25, 25-15, 25-17, 30-28 while Central Wyoming swept Otero College 25-19, 25-16, 25-12.
The other games on Thursday will pit Casper against McCook at noon and Otero against Northwest at 2 p.m. in elimination matches.
In the big five-set win for the Cougars over Casper, Erica Fava led the way with a triple-double with 10 kills, 12 digs, and 10 points. Ale Meoni led the team in kills with 19 while also tallying six digs, and eight points.
Jenna Curtis tallied 16 kills with nine digs and six points, while Emmalei Mapu had 12 kills followed by Alex Hernandez with six kills, nine points, five aces, and two digs.
Shanelle Martinez finished with 56 set assists with 13 points, seven digs, and three aces, while Lexi Keoho had 11 digs, and AK Chavez had 20 digs.
The entire match was one where the Cougars had trouble sustaining momentum in four of the five sets. The first set saw Casper have the biggest of the set of three points twice at 11-8 and 13-10. WNCC did come back to take a 14-13 lead on three Fava points. Casper came back to grab a 22-20 lead and led 23-22 before a Meoni kill stopped the run and then Meoni served the final two points as Hernandez got the final point for the 25-23 win.
The second set was one of runs by both teams. Casper took a 4-1 lead only to watch the Cougars go up 8-5 on three Hernandez points. The Cougars led 13-8 after three Curtis points. Casper came back as they went up 15-14 and then led 21-17.
WNCC fought back behind two Hernandez points to cut the deficit to 21-20. Casper came back and went up 23-20 and won the second set 25-22.
The third set was one of the Cougars best played sets as they controlled the tempo from the start, grabbing a 9-2 lead after six Martinez service points. WNCC led 15-8 late after two Curtis kills. Leading 19-12, Fava got a kill and then the sophomore outside hitter served the final five points for the 25-12 win.
WNCC couldn't hold that momentum in the fourth set. WNCC led 5-4 before Casper went up 7-5. Moments later, the T-birds had a 7-point service run to lead 15-6. Casper led 18-12 when Curtis had a kill and then two service points off kills from Fava and Mapu, but the T-birds closed out the fourth set with four straight service points and the 25-17 win.
The fifth set was identical to the Cougars third set where they dominated. WNCC went up 4-0 on three Martinez points and led 6-3. Casper came back to cut the Cougar lead to 6-5, but a net serve sent the service to Meoni and the sophomore hitter had three points for the 10-5 lead.
Casper made an attempt to come back, slicing the deficit to 12-9, but it wasn't enough as Mapu got a big kill to make it 14-10 and then Martinez got the final service point as Fava hammered down the kill for the match winner.