PAWzitiviely Pink Night moved to Friday against Lamar

               The No. 16 Western Nebraska Community College volleyball match with Casper College that was scheduled for Tuesday has been postponed because of inclement weather in Wyoming.

                Tuesday’s match was also PAWzitively Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Night as well as WNCC Alumni Night.

                The PAWzitively Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Night has now been moved to Friday’s home match with Lamar Community College. First serve on Friday is slated for 6 p.m. at Cougar Palace.

That night will also be sophomore recognition night in honor of the six sophomores on this year’s team. Those sophomores include Macey Boggs, Mariah Fukumoto, Angel Nahinu, Hyleigh Fornstrom, Holleigh Jaime, and Elli Winkler.

                Fans are encouraged to wear pink at Friday’s rescheduled breast cancer awareness night to get $1 off admission. Also, breast cancer survivors will be admitted free into the game, There are a few T-shirts from this year that are still available that will be available for purchase as well as T-shirts from previous years. All proceeds from the T-shirt sale goes the Festival of Hope.

This is the 14^th year that the college has had a breast cancer awareness night at a volleyball game. This year is extra special as several former Cougars have been undergoing breast cancer over the past year.

                Fatima Balza, who played for the Cougars in 2007 and 2008 and helped them win a national title, went through breast cancer operation and chemo beginning in 2020 and wrapped up her chemo earlier this year. While Balza was finishing up, Taylor VanderWerff, who played at WNCC 2012 and 2013 while Balza was an assistant, was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year.

                Also, Amy Winters, who spearheads the PAWzitively Pink night, underwent breast cancer in 2005 when she was an assistant volleyball coach for the Cougars. Winters was an assistant in 2007 when the Cougars won the national tournament.

                While there where will be plenty of pink around Cougar Palace on Tuesday to celebrate a cause, the Cougars will also be looking to capture their fourth straight win. WNCC will also be looking for their 21^st win of the season.

                After Friday, WNCC will wrap up the home portion of the regular season with a Saturday contest against Northeastern Junior College at 2 p.m. WNCC will finish the regular season on Wednesday, Oct. 27 when they travel to take on McCook Community College. The Casper match could be made up within the next week or so.

                WNCC will also host the Region IX tournament with all 12 Region IX teams November 3-6 with the top two teams qualifying for the national tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas.