COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball split a pair of matches on Saturday to finish the Reiver Classic with a 3-1 record in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
The 6th-ranked Cougars opened the day with a strong showing over Dodge City Community College in posting the 25-17, 25-21, 27-29, 25-15 win. WNCC then was swept by No. 4 Indian Hills Community College 25-15, 25-19, 25-22 to wrap up the season-opening invitational.
WNCC, 3-1, will be back in action Tuesday when they host Casper College at 7 p.m. at Cougar Palace.
The opener saw plenty of offensive support from WNCC in the win with a total of 51 kills. Charli Blackman led the way with a double-double of 14 kills, 13 digs, four points, and two aces. Lilly Zwart also had 11 kills with five digs and six points, while Dani Cruz tallied a double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs.
Chloe Grady finished with seven kills with seven kills with three blocks, while Finja Schul had six kills, seven digs, six points, three aces, three assisted blocks, and three solo blocks.
Also for the Cougars against Dodge City, Shanelle Martinez had three kills, 13 digs, 41 set assists, seven points, and three service aces.
Freshman libero Taylor Tyser of Laramie, Wyoming, also had a double-double with 18 digs, 14 points, five set assists, and an ace serve. Megan Bewley tallied 13 digs in the win.
In the defeat to Indian Hills, the Cougars managed just 26 kills as a team and had trouble sustaining long service runs, while Indian Hills had a number of five or more runs throughout the three sets.
The first game saw WNCC bolt to a 7-2 lead behind three points from Blackman and two from Tyser. Things changed after that as Indian Hills went ahead 13-9 with a 6-point run and then led 20-10 on a 7-0 run before capturing the first set 25-15.
WNCC started the second set strong as they led 4-2, but it soon changed Indian Hills outscored 11-2 to grab a 13-6 lead. Indian Hills led 22-15 before WNCC tried a comeback behind a kill from Kyana Gabriel and a point from Tyser, but Indian Hills won 25-19.
Once again WNCC started the third set strong, leading 5-3 after three Schul points and led 6-4 on a Cruz kill. Indian Hills came back with a 6-point run and then a 3-point run to lead 14-8. WNCC kept fighting as they sliced the deficit to 18-16 on two Cruz points and then got to within 21-20 after two Tyser points.
Indian Hills went up 23-20 on an ace serve, but the fourth-ranked team had a missed serve to turn the service back to the Cougars. Blackman then served an ace to bring the score to 23-22, but Indian Hills scored the final two points for the win.
Zwart led the Cougars with eight kills and three digs, while Cruz had six kills, four digs, and five points. Schul tallied five kills with three points, two aces, and two set assits, while Gabriel, Blackman, and Martinez each had two kills. Martinez also had 22 set assists, four digs, five points, and two aces, while Blackman had five points and three digs.
Also for the Cougars, Tyser had 11 digs and six points, Gabriel had three digs and two points, and Bewley had three digs.