MCCOOK – The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball moved to 5-2 on the year after splitting matches in the McCook Invite on Friday.

                The Cougars opened the day with a loss to No. 4 Indian Hills Community College 25-16, 25-20, 25-21 before downing Hill College 25-18, 25-14, 23-25, 25-13.

                WNCC will wrap up the McCook Labor Day Invite with two matches on Saturday when they face No. 19 Hutchinson Community College at 10 a.m. and Southeast Community College at 3 p.m.

                In the win over Hill College, Lilly Zwart finished with a double-double with 14 kills and 14 points. She also had seven digs and two solo blocks. Zwart was named the NJCAA Offensive Player of the Week earlier in the week.

                The Cougars also got nine kills, 12 points, and four digs from Ahleejah Tovo-Sunia, while Chloe Grady tallied nine kills with a solo block. Tamika Eastman finished with eight kills and six points, while Finja Schul had seven kills, two solo blocks, four assisted blocks, and two points.

                Also for the Cougars in the win, Nora Marginean had 32 set assists, nine digs, and six points; Taylor Tyser had 15 digs, four set assists, and eight points; and Alex Gonzalez-Orozco with six digs.

                The Cougars opened the first game against Hill late. With the score knotted at 16, Tovo-Sunia had a 4-point service run to make it 23-17 and then won the set on a Grady kill and Schul service point.

                The second set saw WNCC run out to a 5-1 lead behind two points from Marginean and Eastman and led 14-3 after Zwart had a 5-point run. WNCC won the easy 25-14 on a Schul kill.

                The third set saw WNCC play everyone and almost got the win. Hill led 7-3 and later 14-10. Zwart tied the set with three points and a kill at 14-14. WNCC got to within 19-18 on a Grady kill and trailed 24-23 before Hill won 25-23.

                The fourth set saw Tyser with four service points to give the Cougars an 8-1 lead. WNCC led 12-3 and doubled up Hill 20-10 after three Zwart service points. WNCC never looked back as they won the set on a Grady kill.

                The Indian Hills match saw WNCC compete with the Iowa school, but never could win a set.

                The first set saw WNCC lead 6-4 on a Tyser point, but Indian Hills came back to lead 11-8 and later 16-11 on their way to the 25-16 win.

                The Cougars led the second set, too, at 4-3 on a Nachtigall kill. WNCC later had the set tied at 17-17 after three Tovo-Sunia points. Indian Hills won the second set 25-20.

                The third set saw WNCC lead 6-4 after two Tyser points. WNCC trailed 10-9 when Indian Hills had a big service run to go up 15-9. The Cougars kept fighting as they came within 21-19 after two Grady kills and later trailed 23-21 on a Zwart kill, but Indian Hills got the final two points for the win.

                In the Indian Hills match, WNCC finished with 31 total kills to Indian Hills 38 kills. Zwart had 13 kills with three solo blocks; Jaylen Nachtigall had five kills; Grade had four kills with two solo blocks; and Tovo-Sunia had three kills.

                Also for the Cougars in the Indian Hills match, Marginean had 24 set assists, a solo block, and two points; while Eastman had eight digs and four points and Tyser had 13 digs and three points.

                The Cougars also got 13 kills from Zwart with two digs and three solo blocks; Tovo-Sunia with three kills, three points, and six digs; Schul with four kills and four solo blocks; Gonzalez-Orozco with eight digs; Jaylen Nachtigall with five kills; and Grady with four kills and two solo blocks.