Cougar top No. 9 New Mexico Military in four sets

                SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team put together two top-notch performances in capturing a pair of wins in the first day of the Crystal INN-vitational in Salt Lake City, Utah, Friday.

                The Cougars started the day with three Cougars recording double figure kills led by Jenna Curtis with 15 to sweep past Arizona Western College 25-21, 25-13, 25-21.

                WNCC followed that up with a four-set win over No. 9 New Mexico Military behind a triple-double from Erica Fava of 12 kills, 14 digs, and 13 points in earning the 25-22, 25-21, 23-25, 25-22 win.

                WNCC, 6-5 on the season, will wrap up the Crystal INN-vitational on Saturday with two matches, facing the College of Southern Idaho at 11 a.m. and No. 14 Salt Lake Community College at 3 p.m.

                WNCC sophomore Mariah Fukumoto said the team played well on the day.

                “The team played really good,” she said. “This was probably the best games we have played so far. All around we connected as a team and everyone knew what their job was on the court.”

                Fukumoto said the key to the wins was just having fun and that is what they did.

                “The key was just to have fun and stay together as a team,” she said. “We fought hard throughout both games and we were there for each other to back each other up.”

                Against Arizona Western, WNCC trailed early at 6-4, but then two points from Mariah Fukumoto and three from Macey Boggs gave the Cougars an 11-7 lead. Arizona Western cut the lead to one late, but Ale Meoni finished off the first set with two service points and the 25-21 win.

                The second set was WNCC from start to finish as the Cougars never trailed and had a 14-5 lead after four points from Anakaren Chavez. WNCC led 17-8 and then went up 21-10 on three Erica Fava points before winning 25-13 on a Fava kill.

                The third set was close with the teams tied at 15, 16, and 17 late. WNCC pushed the lead to 20-18 and led 23-19 before winning the match 25-21 on a Meoni kill.

                Meoni and Fava had double-doubles in the match. Meoni had 12 kills, 10 digs, and nine points, while Fava had 12 kills, 10 digs, and six points. Curtis led the way with 15 kills, three digs, and three points.

                Also for WNCC, Boggs had 14 digs, 41 set assists, and six points; Fukumoto had 19 digs and three points; Chavez had eight points and four digs; Hyleigh Fornstrom had four kills; and Angel Nahinu had two kills.

                The Arizona Western was a big win in snapping a 3-game losing streak, but the win over No. 9 New Mexico Military was even bigger.

                WNCC took control in the first set leading 18-12 on two Fava points. NMMI came back to trail 20-19, but WNCC went in front 22-19 and won 25-22.

                The second set saw the Cougars start strong as Fukumoto had five points for a 10-2 lead. WNCC led 18-7 late only to watch NMMI came back to cut the lead to 22-19. Fava got a kill to stop a run and then Fornstrom served up an ace for a 24-19 win. WNCC won the second on a Juliana Oliveira kill.

                The third set was very competitive as NMMI led 5-3 and pushed the lead to 15-11. WNCC came back to tie the set at 17 and 18 before falling back behind 21-18. The Cougars kept battling as they came withing 24-23 before NMMI got the last point.

                Fava started the fourth set off with four service points and a 5-1 WNCC lead. The Cougars later went up 18-13 on two Julie Moccellin points. NMMI cut the Cougar lead to two on several occasions, but WNCC won the match on a Moccellin service point and Curtis kill.

                Fava had a triple-double in the win with 12 kills, 14 digs, 13 points, and four aces. Meoni finished with 15 kills, while Curtis had a double-double of 11 kills and 10 digs with six points.

                Boggs finished the NMMI match with 30 set assists, eight digs, six points, and two aces; Fukumoto had a double-double of 25 digs and 10 points; Nahinu had four kills, Oliveira had eight kills; Fronstrom had two kills and two points; and Moccellin had 20 set assists, four digs, five points, and three aces.

                These two wins were critical to give the team some confidence and they showed they can play with anyone.

                “It was extremely important because it gave us the confidence that we needed,” Fukumoto said. “It showed us that we were capable of doing what we needed to do.”

                WNCC will be looking to add two more wins on Saturday and with that confidence they gained on Friday, Fukumoto said they have to keep up the fight.

                “We need to start strong and have the same energy that we started with today,” she said. “It we have high intensity than we can beat any team that we want. We just have to stay focused and continue to do our own part on and off the court."

WNCC women tie Northwest 1-1 in double overtime

                The Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team got a goal with two minutes left in the match to force overtime and then the Cougars and Northwest College settled for a 1-1 double overtime tie in the team’s contest Friday at Landers Soccer Complex.

                Litzi Delarosa, who got the assist in the game-tying goal, said the team played better after halftime.

                “The team started off on a bad start, but we managed to set the pace of the second half and possessed the game and got a lot more shots on goal,” Delarosa said.

                The first half saw both teams not get a lot of goals on net. Northwest, however, got the only goal in the first half and it was early with just under five minutes gone in the game when Peyton Roswadovski scored off an assist from Kylie Warren for the 1-0 lead.

                After that there wasn’t a lot of scoring chances as Northwest led at halftime 1-0.

                The second half saw a totally different Cougar team come out as the Cougars dominated on offense with a lot of shots on goal, but the Northwest goalkeeper Alexa Williams made 14 saves in net.

                Still, the way the Cougars were shooting was a marked improvement from the first half.

                “The team did not play how we know how to play,” Delarosa said. “The second half we started off on the wrong foot but managed to pick up the pace and set the speed of play of how we wanted it to be.”

                The Cougars started their offensive shooting as Vanessa Vasquez missed a good chance with 36 minutes to play and then Izzy Wright had a good shot with 31 minutes to play and came up short. A little bit later, Andrea Jimenez came up short.

                Then, the Cougars really dominated on the offensive side from the 17-minute mark to the 10-minute mark where they had four good chances, and nothing would go into the net. With five minutes left, Delarosa had a good shot on goal and couldn’t get the tying goal in net.

                Facing pressure to tie the match, the Cougars finally found the bet with 1:45 to play when Vasquez took a pass from Delarosa and blasted the ball past the Northwest goalkeeper to knot the score and send the game into overtime.

                Neither team scored in the two 10-minute overtime periods to settle for a tie.

                WNCC finished with 26 shots with 15 on goal. Northwest had seven shots. WNCC had five corner kicks while Northwest had just one corner kick.

                WNCC goalkeeper Luisa Cordiero had four saves in net.

                WNCC, 1-1-1, will be back in action Saturday at 10 a.m. when they will face Central Wyoming College. Central played Northeastern at Landers on Friday and were shutout by the Plainswomen.

                Delarosa said they need to find the connections to pick up a win on Saturday at home.

                “What we need to do to win on Saturday is connect a lot better,” she said. “We need to shift second pass as a team to have more shots in the back of the net.”

WNCC men shutout Northwest 4-0

 

                The Western Nebraska Community College men’s soccer team received goals from four different players in registering a 4-0 win over Northwest College Friday afternoon at the Landers Soccer Complex.

                The win Friday kept the Cougar men undefeated on the season at 3-0.

                Jacob Collins, who recorded one of the four goals, said being undefeated this season so far is huge considering a year ago, the Cougar men only registered two wins.

                “The team is playing extremely well,” Collins said. “We have been training hard and I feel like it’s really paying off because we have won all our games. I feel like we have good team chemistry which is so important for any team.”

                Friday night, it was a good team effort especially on defense in holding the Trappers scoreless.

                “The attackers played really well and they took their chances. But I feel that we could have scored more,” Collins said. “The defense was extremely solid. We gave them no opportunities to score and I felt like the defense communicated very well.”

                Collins said it was just a good day of soccer for the Cougar men.

                “I thought that the team played really well,” Collins said. “We kept possession of the ball extremely well and overall, we just played really well as a team.”

                It took a while for both teams to get going offensively. WNCC scored first 14 minutes into the contest as Saugat Rai scored off an assist Collins for the 1-0 lead. WNCC made it 2-0 when Rodrigo Cercal scored off an assist from Matheus Rodrigues with 19:40 to play in the first half.

                WNCC kept playing strong the rest of the way as they made it 3-0 with 32:30 left in the second half as Collins scored on a free kick. The Cougars finished off the scoring with 1:41 left in the match off an assist from Luis Molina.

                WNCC finished with 22 shots compared to just four for Northwest. WNCC had five corner kicks while Northwest had three.

                Imanal Munoz and Daniel Sanchez each spent a half in goal getting just one save each.

                WNCC will be back in action Saturday at noon when they face Central Wyoming College.