The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team got 19 kills from Lilly Zwart and the Cougars remained unbeaten in South Sub-region play at 4-0 with their 20th win of the season with a 25-17, 25-10, 22-25, 25-17 win over McCook Community College Saturday afternoon at Cougar Palace.
The 20th-ranked Cougars improved to 20-6 overall and will have a big sub-region contest Wednesday in Sterling, Colorado, as they visit No. 4 Northeastern Junior College with a 6 p.m. start.
Zwart said they played focused and as a team.
"I think we really played as a team, especially in those first two sets where we got on top of McCook and didn't give up," the sophomore from New Zealand said.
The energy that the team has started to play with has been key and all three games this week saw the Cougars start strong and play well with energy to start. Zwart said there is a big difference from the team now to the start of the season, especially in confidence of what the players can do on the court.
"Since the start of the season, it was only just a few of us that were killing the ball," she said. "But, now, since we have gotten further into the season, everybody will finish their kills and we can give it to anybody and we are comfortable the ball is going to hit the ground."
On Saturday, that was definitely the case as eight different players had at least one kill and the team totaled 49 kills as a team in the four sets. They also hit .277 for the contest and picked up 63 digs of their opponent's kills.
"We are being a lot more aggressive like no one is scared of anything now," Zwart said. "It is nice that everyone is swinging at balls even if they just got blocked."
Zwart tallied 19 kills with a .341 hitting efficiency followed by Tamika Eastman with 11 kills and a .348 hitting efficiency. Finja Schul chipped in five kills, Chloe Grady had four kills, and Dessiah Christopher, Ahleejah Tovo-Sunia, and Nora Marginean all had three kills
The Cougars also had three players with double figures digs and three players with double figures service points.
Tovo-Sunia led with 20 digs followed by Taylor Tyser with 16, and Marginean with 10. Zwart also had seven digs while Alex Gonzalez-Orozco had four.
As for serving, which was a crucial part of the contest, Marginean tallied 15 points while Zwart and Tovo-Sunia each had 11 points. Eastman had nine service points while Tyser tallied seven.
WNCC also finished with nine service aces led by Tovo-Sunia with four, Tyser with two, and one each from Marginean, Zwart, and Eastman.
The contest, however, was a battle. The first set was back and forth with McCook holding an 11-10 lead. That was when things changed as Marginean served up six straight points behind four kills from Zwart to lead 17-11.
McCook came back to make it a 19-16 contest and led 21-17. That was when Christopher hammered a kill and Tovo-Sunia served the final three points for the 25-17 win.
The second set was tied at 1-1 early and it was only a 5-3 contest. That was when the strong serving took over as Zwart served five straight points for a 11-3 lead and then Tovo-Sunia had a run of six points with two aces for an 18-4 lead. WNCC went on to win the second set 25-10 on a Zwart kill.
The third set was a typical WNCC/McCook set as it was a battle from start to finish. McCook led 10-7 on Megan Walker four service points. McCook led 19-15 after four points from Audrey Holm and seemed to be in control.
WNCC came back to make it a 20-19 McCook lead after three Zwart kills. McCook went back in front 22-19 on an Allynn Wright point. WNCC got to within 23-22, but McCook got the final two points for the 25-22 win.
The fourth set was just like the third in many ways. McCook grabbed a 4-3 lead after two Caylin Barnett points. Zwart got a kill and Tyser served three points for a 7-4 lead. McCook pulled to within 11-10, but an Eastman kill and four Marginean points put the Cougars up 16-14.
McCook fought back to make it 16-14 on three Romina Martinez points, but Eastman served four points to make it 21-14. WNCC went up 23-16 on a monster kill from Zwart and then Zwart got another kill to make it 24-17 and she served the final point for the 25-17 win.
Being 4-0 on in conference play is huge as they hit a stretch of the season where they will face the sub-region teams on the road. WNCC will wrap up the regular season on October 30 when they host NJC. Against NJC come Wednesday, Zwart said they need to have plenty of energy against a team that is talented.
"Against NJC, we need to have energy," she said. "If our team is down, we don't play as well. So, we need to get on top of them really quick and have that energy will be important. We won't be at home so making sure the people are supporting us through is what is going to get us through."