The sixth-ranked Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team learned a lot about their team in the opening weekend of games at the Reiver Classic in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and they will use that learning experience as they get ready for the home-opener against Casper College on Tuesday.

                Tipoff for the Region IX game is set for 7 p.m. at Cougar Palace. It will be a match-up between to teams with identical records at 3-1.

                "Against Casper, if we play like we did this weekend and it will be very exciting with all the fans here to support us," sophomore Shanelle Martinez said. "I think we are very ready to play well and not to overlook ourselves. We are very anxious to play and a week off seems like a long time, but it will just give us more reps to practice and actually get used to playing with each other more and more."

                WNCC won their first three matches of the Reiver Classic with a 3-1 win over No. 1 Butler Community College, a 3-2 win over Iowa Western Community College, and a 3-1 win over Dodge City Community College. The Cougars only defeat came against No. 4 Indian Hills Community College in three sets.

                Casper is also 3-1 as they competed in a tournament in McCook. The Thunderbirds topped Iowa Lakes Community College 3-0 before falling to Hutchinson Community College 3-2. Casper then beat Otero College 3-1 and the took out Seward County Community College 3-2 with scores of 20-25, 25-17, 25-9, 11-25, 15-13.

                Casper has five sophomores on the team from a year ago with 10 freshmen. The Thunderbirds are led by Mia Hutchinson, a sophomore from Star Valley, Wyoming, who had 59 kills and 56 digs last weekend. Amelia Piekut, a sophomore from Warsaw, Poland, also tallied 32 kills while Jahslun Rajvong, a freshman from Maui, Hawaii, had 24 digs.

                WNCC also had plenty of hitting as Lilly Zwart, a freshman from New Zealand finished with 49 kills in the four matches, while sophomore Charli Blackman also from New Zealand had 41 kills. Dani Cruz, a freshman from Mexico, tallied 36 kills.

                On the defensive side, Martinez had 138 set assists with 47 digs to lead the team. Freshman Taylor Tyser had 57 digs from her libero position along with five aces, while Megan Bewley had 28 digs.

                Martinez said the team learned a lot from the first competition as they get ready for Tuesday's contest. WNCC will then have a week off before their next competition when they travel to Eastern Wyoming College on August 29.

                "As a team we learned we are very diverse, but we definitely have a lot to work on," Martinez said. "This weekend we did great for it being our first action. I think we played pretty competitive teams. We did good things, but we have a lot of things we have to work on. We have a lot of freshmen and a lot to learn."