TORRINGTON, Wyo. – The 17th-ranked Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team put together a team effort in sweeping past Eastern Wyoming College 25-15, 27-25, 25-23 Tuesday night in Torrington, Wyoming.
WNCC moved to 24-7 overall with the win while the Lancers, who came into the contest winners of 14 straight, fell to 20-7.
EWC head coach George Hamilton was also presented with a frame for reaching his 400th career win a couple weeks ago.
Tuesday night, though, was a WNCC show of talent especially in the first set. Finja Schul, who finished with 10 kills and three blocks, said the team came ready to play. WNCC won the two previous matches against EWC in four sets.
"We played with energy from the start of the game. We lost that energy at the beginning of the third set, but we came back strong at the end," Schul said. "We did not make a lot of mistakes."
The big thing in the win for the Cougars is how spread out they were in kills, points, and blocks. Schul said that their setter Nora Marginean did a good job of spreading the ball around.
"I think, especially in the last game, our setter did a really good job of getting the ball to everyone and getting everyone to play, so we have a good connection with her," she said.
Both teams were on a roll coming into the match and Schul knew it was going to be battle in the Highway 26 showdown.
"We knew that (their win streak) coming in and we were really excited because we knew they had a loud student section," Schul said. "But we didn't let that get us down because we still had the energy up and it was a big team win. We knew them because we played them before and we know it is the end of the season and every team is getting better and so are we. We are getting better and better and preparing for regionals."
The first set was close at the beginning with the score tied at 6-6. That was when Tamika Eastman got a kill and then Lilly Zwart went on a 3-point run to push the Cougars lead to 10-7. WNCC led 18-9 after three Schul points.
WNCC went up 21-11 after two Marginean points and won the first set 25-15 on a Dessiah Christopher kill.
The second set started like the first back and forth. WNCC built a 16-10 lead after two Zwart points, but EWC fought back to make it 16-14. The Cougars called a timeout and it resulted in a missed serve. Ahleejah Tovo-Sunia then went on a 3-point run for a 20-14 lead. WNCC led 22-18 when the Lancers came back to tie the set at 22-22 and then had set point at 24-23.
WNCC avoided the set point and went up 25-24. The Lancers stopped set point and tied it at 25. Schul hammered a kill and then Zwart had an ace serve for the 27-25 win.
EWC started the third set hot with a 3-0 lead and led 5-2. The two teams kept playing sideout ball until the Lancers went on a 3-point run for a 12-8 lead. Eastman hit a kill to stop the run and then Marginean had two points to make it 12-11.
EWC went up 14-11, but a Zwart kill and then two Eastman points, including an ace, tied the set at 14-14. EWC kept playing strong as they went up 19-15 and led 20-18. Schul stopped the Lancer momentum with a kill and then Tovo-Sunia had three points for a 22-20 lead. The score was tied at 23-23 when Eastman had a kill and then Marginean finished off the match with a point.
Eastman led the offense with 13 kills. The Sioux County graduate also had three digs and five points with an ace. Schul tallied 10 kills with three blocks, three digs, and four points.
Christopher finished with six kills while Zwart had nine kills, four digs, eight points, and two aces. Marginean, who was named the Region IX South Offensive Player of the Week on Monday, tallied 38 set assists, nine points, seven digs, and three blocks.
Also, for the Cougars, Chloe Grady had four kills and two blocks; Taylor Tyser had 15 digs, three points, and an ace. Alex Gonzalez-Orozco had eight digs, while Tovo-Sunia had seven digs and nine points.
EWC didn't have anyone with double figure kills with Siale Unufe tallying nine followed by Amarie Huntsman with seven. Boden Liljedahl had 20 digs.
WNCC will be back in action this weekend when they travel to Lamar Community College on Friday and then McCook Community College on Saturday. WNCC wraps up the regular season on October 30 when they host Northeastern Junior College in a triple special night as it will be Breast Cancer Awareness night or Pink Night along with WNCC Alumni night. It will also be sophomore recognition which will take place after the match for the nine sophomores.