TORRINGTON, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team went 2-1 in action over the weekend at the WyoBraska Invite in Torrington, Wyoming, on Friday and Saturday.
The Cougars started the tournament with a hard-fought 5-set loss to Miles Community College 25-23, 16-15, 16-25, 26-24, 15-13. WNCC rebounded late Friday with an emotional 5-set win over Central Wyoming College in a game that took nearly three hours, finishing at 10:45 p.m. The scores in the win over Central were 22-25, 27-25, 25-21, 21-25, 15-13.
WNCC finished the invite on Saturday with a straight-set win over Gillette College 25-19, 25-8, 25-19.
WNCC moves to 14-6 overall as they get set to return home for a string of six straight matches over the next two weeks. WNCC will host Casper College on Tuesday at 6 p.m. with conference contests against Trinidad State College on Friday and Otero College on Saturday.
The Miles contest saw plenty of kills between the two teams. WNCC tallied 59 kills and had a hitting efficiency of .304 while Miles had 53 kills and a efficiency of .197. Both teams had three players get double-figure kills.
WNCC was led by Lilly Zwart with 16 followed by Ahleejah Tovo-Sunia with 14 and Finja Schul with 12. Tovo-Sunia had a double-double as the freshman also finished with 17 digs.
Also for the Cougars, Nora Marginean had 53 set assists with five digs and four block assists while Chloe Grady had three kills. Tamika Eastman tallied seven kills with six digs, while Schul had five block assists with her 12 kills.
Taylor Tyser had 28 digs in the loss while Alex Gonzalez-Orozco had 10 digs.
The Central Wyoming match was another contest that saw both teams exhausted in the fourth and fifth set. WNCC had a 22-21 lead in the first set after two Eastman points, but Central Wyoming scored the final four points for the 25-22 win.
The second set saw Central Wyoming lead 14-10 and 15-11. That was when WNCC put together a couple big scoring runs including Gonzalez-Orozco serving four straight for a 16-15 lead and then Marginean had four points for a 24-19 lead. Central Wyoming came back and tied the set at 25. WNCC got the win as Tyser served the ball and Schul pounded the ball home for the 27-25 win.
WNCC controlled the third set, running to a 6-0 lead as Marginean had six straight service points. WNCC led 17-7 and won the third 25-21.
The fourth set was reversed as Central Wyoming ran to a 7-0 lead and led 11-2. WNCC came back to grab a 16-14 lead after Jaylen Nachtigall had six service points and then Tyser served six straight for the 16-14 lead. Central Wyoming came back to grab a 21-18 lead and took the fourth 25-21.
The fifth set saw WNCC lead 3-1 after a Zwart kill and two Eastman points. WNCC led 8-5 on a Schul ace. Central Wyoming came back and grabbed a 12-11 lead. Schul got a kill to tie the fifth and then Gonzalez-Orozco had two points for a 14-12 lead. Schul finished off the match with a kill.
WNCC finished with 59 total kills, led by Zwart with 21 followed by Schul with 13 and Eastman with 11. Eastman had a triple-double in the win with 10 digs and 12 points with three aces. Marginean also had a triple-double with 51 set assists with 12 digs and 12 points. She also had three kills and three aces.
Tovo-Sunia had two kills with six digs while Dessiah Christopher had five kills. Tyser finished with 16 digs with eight points, while Gonzalez-Orozco had seven digs and nine points.
WNCC wrapped up the invite with a sweep over Gillette that saw the Cougars hit .358 for the match with 32 kills in the three sets.
Chloe Grady led the way with eight kills with four assist blocks. Eastman had six kills with eight digs, while Zwart and Schul each had five kills.
Marginean had 24 set assists while Tyser had 12 digs, Tovo-Sunia had seven digs, and Gonzalez-Orozco had five digs.