CHEYENNE, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team sputtered on Wednesday on the first day of the Region IX Volleyball Tournament, falling to Central Wyoming College 25-19, 25-22, 23-25, 25-23.
The loss pushes the Cougars to the second bracket of the Region IX tournament, where they will face McCook Community College in an elimination contest at 1:30 p.m. Thursday. McCook fell to Eastern Wyoming College late Wednesday 25-13, 25-20, 25-21.
In fact, the first day of the tournament was crazy as all four North teams advanced to the semifinals of the first regional bracket while all four South teams suffered losses.
The other two first round games saw Western Wyoming Community College topple Trinidad State College 25-19, 25-27, 25-18, 25-23 while Laramie County Community College pulled off the big upset, topping No. 4 Northeastern Junior College 15-25, 18-25, 25-20, 25-22, 15-13 with a reverse swept.
Thursday's semifinals will pit Western Wyoming against Laramie County at 4:30 p.m. followed by Central Wyoming facing Eastern Wyoming at 7 p.m. The other two matches on Thursday will be elimination games with the teams fighting to stay alive for the second Region IX tournament championship. That will pit Trinidad State against Northeastern at 11 a.m. followed by WNCC taking on McCook at 1:30 p.m.
One of the four North teams will be crowned the first Region IX champion on Friday, while the other six teams will be fighting it out for the second Region IX title that will be decided Saturday afternoon.
For the Cougar women, they will need to sharpen their play to continue winning. Overall, the Cougars finished with 39 kills for the match while Central Wyoming had 56. The Rustlers were led by Presley Ryan with 15 kills followed by Khloe Hobson with 13, and Rachel Workman with 10.
WNCC was led on offense by Tamika Eastman and Lilly Zwart each with 11 kills followed by Chloe Grady with eight and Finja Schul with four.
The Cougars had a lot of service errors even though they got some good service runs. Nora Marginean finished with 13 points followed by Ahleejah Tovo-Sunia with 11, Taylor Tyser with four and three from Eastman.
The Cougars had opportunities in the match with Central Wyoming. In the first set, the set was tied at 19-19 and then the Rustlers reeled off six straight points to take the 25-19 win.
The second set saw WNCC fall behind 19-13. The Cougars came storming back behind four points from Tovo-Sunia to trail 19-18. The Cougars were facing a Central Wyoming set point at 24-21 when Grady hammered down a kill. But Central won the second set 25-22.
WNCC looked flat to start the third set, falling behind 11-7 and trailed 19-15 late. Grady got a kill and then Marginean served five points to put WNCC up 21-19. Central came back to tie the set at 22-22, but a Zwart kill and a Tovo-Sunia service point made it 24-22. WNCC won the third set 25-23 on a Zwart kill.
The fourth set saw WNCC fall behind 9-2 and later 13-6. WNCC battled back behind three points from Tovo-Sunia and two points from Marginean to come within 15-14. WNCC tied the set at 20-20 on an Eastman kill. Central went back up 23-20 before WNCC got it to 23-22 and later 24-23, but Central got the final point for the win.