Second-year Western Nebraska Community College head coach Ryan Davis is anxious to get the season started Halloween night and so is his Lady Cougar team.

                "I think we're excited to play somebody else for real," Davis said. "I mean when we play jamboree games, I think they can tell the difference. They step it up every time when we play more of a real game against other people in jamborees, but now it gets real. I'm expecting us to come out with a lot of energy and be ready to go."

                The WNCC women, who finished last season at 25-6 before falling in the semifinals to Western Wyoming Community College, will host the Cougar Classic on Friday and Saturday, October 31 and November 1 with two women's games each day.

                The Cougars open on Halloween night with a 7 p.m. contest against Colorado Northwestern Community College. The first women's game on Halloween night will pit No. 11 Salt Lake Community College against No. 4 Dodge City Community College at 5 p.m.

                Saturday's action has Dodge City facing Colorado Northwestern at 11 a.m. followed by the Cougars taking on Salt Lake at 1 p.m.

                Davis said he doesn't know a lot about Colorado Northwestern but knows Salt Lake will be a challenge.

                "Colorado Northwestern has a lot of different players. They only return like three or four players and he's got a lot of new kids. They are in a tough region with Salt Lake and North Idaho and Snow and all those teams," Davis said. "Salt Lake returns quite a few players from last year and quite a few good players. I know they added a Division I transfer at the post so they're going to be talented. I think if we come out and play hard and play aggressive, I think we'll be okay."

                The Cougar women will have seven home games in the month of November. After this weekend, the Cougars return to host Casper College on Tuesday. Casper won the Region IX title a year ago.

                The Cougars will then host Laramie County Community College on November 9, a Sunday afternoon before hitting the road for a contest at Eastern Wyoming College on November 11.

                Davis likes the makeup of this year's team. The Cougar women will be young with just one returning player in 5-foot-8 guard Zozefine Sipolina from Jurmala, Latvia. Sipolina averaged 15.8 points a year ago and made 95 3-pointers while shooting 85.2 percent from the charity stripe.

                Davis said it is nice to have someone like her back on the court this season.

                "She is somebody that you can kick out shots and make threes, that's a big weapon," he said. "I mean shot making in three-point making is the biggest weapon that you can have in our game, especially on the women's side and she does that. So, having her and having her understand of what to do day to day is a big help."

                To complement Sipolina, Davis has nine freshmen who will add plenty of depth to the squad. The freshmen include Dunja Stojanovic, a 5-8 guard from Belgrade, Serbia; Juseana-Rae Delatori, a 5-7 guard from Lahaina, Hawaii; Ruth Lively, a 5-8 guard/forward from Scottsbluff; Aniaya Burton-Hernandez, a 6-0 forward from Harlem, New York; Celina Donyo, a 6-2 post from Sweden; Veralyn Aviles, a 5-7 guard from Brooklyn, New York; Charisma Johnson, a 5-7 guard from Portland, Oregon; Ella Chesta-Carty, a 5-7 guard from Antibes, France; and Brynn Sybrant, a 6-0 forward from Casper, Wyoming.

                Davis said this team has plenty of talent to fight for a regional championship but they are also young.

                "We're young but from a talent perspective, we have people that can just go make some shots," he said. "I think that's a little bit different from last year's team and they're going to have to break off plays at times and just go get a basket instead of running the play all the way through, kind of like what we did last year."

                Davis said he expects this team to be able to score and play defense and it will be a little bit different team from a year ago.

                "I think the offense is going to look different. I think there's going to be times where we're probably just going to be able to create and make a basket where we had a harder time with that last year," Davis said. "But I also think from a maturity perspective, we haven't gotten there yet. We're very young and last year's team understood how to control the pace of the game, set hard screens. They knew who to throw the ball to, and right now we're not there yet. So, we're going to have to rely on our shot making and play making abilities until we really mature."