Nora Marginean had 25 service points, including 19 straight in the opening set, as the Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team captured a 25-5, 25-16, 25-14 win over Lamar Community College in South Conference action Friday evening at Cougar Palace.
WNCC moves to 19-6 overall and 3-0 in conference play. The Cougars will have another home conference contest on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Cougar Palace when McCook Community College comes to Scottsbluff.
Marginean said the team played focused in gaining the win.
"I think we had a really good start and that is the most important thing," the freshman setter from Romania said. "It makes it helpful for the rest of the game if we have a good start."
The start that they had was because of Marginean's serving. Tamika Eastman got the opening kill for the 1-0 lead and that sent Marginean back to the service line. What transpired after that was a run of 19 straight points which was aided by kills from Eastman and Lilly Zwart and three ace serves.
Lamar even called two timeouts, the first one at 10-0 didn't cause a sideout, but it was the second one at 20-0 that got the sideout. WNCC went on to win the first set 25-5.
Marginean said her focus on serving during that stretch was the key.
"My previous coaches told me to be really focused and do not get bored when you go to serve," she said. "I just stayed really focused."
A lot of that also had to do with how the offense and defense was clicking during that 19-point service run.
"We were ready for everything. We were ready for every play," Marginean said.
After the first set, Lamar played more together as the next two sets were close. The second set saw Lamar lead just once and that was the opening point. After that, the score was tied at two, threes, and fours. It was Ahleejah Tovo-Sunia that got a kill and then two service points for a 7-4 lead.
WNCC had a 15-12 lead when Tovo-Sunia served two more points for an 18-12 lead. Marginean added two more points to make it 22-14 and Tayler Tyzer the final point for the 25-16 win.
The third set saw everything tied at 4-4. Zwart hammered a kill and then served three straight points for an 8-4 lead. Later, Tovo-Sunia had three points for a 12-5 lead. WNCC led 21-14 when Chloe Grady got a kill and then Marginean finished off the match with three service points and the 25-14 win.
Marginean finished with 25 points, which four points short of tying the school record for most points in a match of 29 points that was set by Heidi Harms back in 2001. Marginean's 25 points is 9th in the record books.
Marginean also had 35 set assists with 10 digs and three kills to go with her 25 points and four aces.
Eastman finished with 16 kills, four digs, and four blocks, while Zwart had 14 kills, four points, and three blocks.
Also for the Cougars, Tyser had three points, three set assists, and 13 digs; Tovo-Sunia had eight points, two aces, and 14 digs; Grady had three kills and three blocks; Nadiyyah Northern had three kills and two blocks; and Alex Gonzalez-Orozco had two digs.