WEST PLAINS, Mo. – The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team double-doubles from Jenna Curtis and Shanelle Martinez and the Cougar teams earned a spot in the fifth-place match on Saturday after sweeping past Central Wyoming College 25-22, 25-16, 25-13 on Friday at the NJCAA national tournament.
The Cougars earned their spot in the 12:30 p.m. fifth-place game with a workmanlike performance over Region IX foe Central Wyoming as Martinez had 32 set assists and 20 digs while Curtis had a triple-double of 10 kills, 17 digs, and 14 points.
WNCC will face Salt Lake Community College on the final day of the tournament for fifth. Salt Lake earned a sweep over Trinity Valley Community College 25-20, 25-18, 25-14. Central Wyoming and Trinity Valley will play for seventh place. The ninth-place match will pit New Mexico Military against Utah State Eastern.
The finals, which will be played at 6:30 p.m. and will be on ESPN+, will have No. 1 Florida Southwestern against No. 6 Miami Dade. Florida Southwestern topped No. 5 Missouri State-West Plains 25-16, 25-20, 26-24, while Miami Dade swept past No. 2 Indian Hills 25-22, 25-21, 25-13. MSU-West Plains will face Indian Hills for third place.
Friday's win over Central Wyoming College was much needed after the Cougars hopes for a national title was dashed by the host school Missouri State-West Plains. But, like the players have done all year, they bounced back with authority in getting the win over Central Wyoming.
Emmalei Mapu, who had five kills and had a hitting percentage of .417, said they had a great showing in the win Friday.
"Our team played very well and we played united," the freshman middle hitter from Hawaii, said. "From the bench to the players on the court, everyone just had great energy and was able to pull off a great and fun win over Central."
Mapu said they did everything right coming into the contest and that included have plenty of energy.
"We just made sure we had good energy from warm ups," she said. "Coming into the game, we told ourselves that we needed to just bounce back and play at our level again and that's exactly what we were able to do."
Now, this team has a chance to play for fifth and become one of just five teams to finish the season with a win heading into next year. Mapu said they are excited to play Salt Lake, a team they lost to early in the season.
"I think we are all very excited," she said. "It's gonna be a great match-up knowing that we've played them before and we all have a set game plan that hopefully we can all stick together and execute."
The match against Central was the same way as the team was focused and got the job done and like the previous three times they played the Rustlers, the first two sets were battles.
The first set saw WNCC take a 4-1 lead after three Curtis points, but Central Wyoming came back to grab an 11-10 lead. Curtis hammered a kill and then served four straight points for a 15-11 lead.
The Rustlers came right back tie things at 15-15 before Alex Hernandez had two service points while Erica Fava had two kills for an 18-15 lead. WNCC led 21-16 before Central knotted things at 21.
The tie was short-lived as Mapu got a kill and then Ale Meoni finished off the set with a kill and the 25-22 win.
The second set saw Central jump to a 4-0 lead before the Cougars went up 5-4 on three Curtis service points. Central led 9-8, but that would be the last time the Rustlers would lead as Fava had two points for an 11-8 lead. WNCC led 19-12 after three Curtis points and would cruise to the win as Fava served the final two points for the 25-16 win.
The third set started close again as Central led 4-2 before Meoni had three points for a 6-4 lead. WNCC pushed the lead to 10-5 on three Fava points. WNCC controlled the set after that as Martinez had two service points for a 16-8 lead and then Meoni had two points for a 22-11 lead. The Cougars won the set 25-13 on a Hernandez kill.
WNCC finished the match with 43 kills and a .280 hitting percentage. Central Wyoming had just 21 kills and hit .087.
Curtis had that triple-double, but also had two aces, a solo block, and two assisted blocks, while Martinez had four points with a kill. Meoni led the team with 15 kills while also having seven points and six digs, while Fava tallied nine kills, two set assists, three aces, and 15 digs.
Also for the Cougars, Hernandez tallied three kills, four points, and three digs; Mapu had five kills, five digs, and three assisted blocks; Keoho had five digs; and Chavez had 11 digs, six set assists and two points.
Saturday will the final game for the team and Mapu said being at the national tournament is special and they want to make the ending very special for the eight sophomores that will be playing their final game in a Cougar uniform.
"Being a freshman on the team, I know there is a lot at stake for our sophomores," Mapu said. "We all just want to go back home with the best possibilities at this point and finish strong because this is ultimately what we've worked for all season."
Mapu said the national tourney was special for her and she has plenty of memories to remember the trip.
"I've made a lot of fun memories with this team here at nationals, but not only in this last week but throughout the whole season," she said. "They honestly have become some of my best friends and I am thankful to have the opportunity to play with them this whole season. One memory from nationals though is when our bus broke down and when there was a fire at the school we practiced at on the way to nationals because it just made the journey way more fun knowing the journey we went on coming into the tournament."