It was a true battle between two NJCAA top five teams with No. 2 Western Nebraska Community College and No. 3 Iowa Western Community College playiing with plenty of energy on both sides of the net.

                In the end, it was the Reivers that prevailed over the Cougars 19-25, 25-14, 25-21, 25-23.

                The loss drops the Cougars to 31-4 on the season as they turn their attention to next week's Region IX South tournament in La Junta, Colorado. The Cougars earned the top seed with a win over Northeastern Junior College earlier in the week.

                While the Cougars couldn't keep their 9-game win streak alive, WNCC head coach Binny Canales still was pleased of how they played against a talented Iowa Western squad.

                "I thought we played very well," he said. "I thought we were attacking the ball. Our passing was solid. We had some rough moments in spurts that they scored a lot of points, but we narrowed those down. I am happy with how we played. Of course we wanted to get the W, but as a team we played well. We just ran into a really good team. It could have gone either way."

                WNCC's start in the first set was something that hasn't been seen for a while where they showed plenty of energy, leading at one time 14-4 on six Brooke Kaawa service points.

                Canales said they tried some different things in this game to try to stop sophomore Abby Bergsten and freshman Caitlyn Cooper.

                "We tried some things and tried to slow down their outsides," Canales said. "They are just tremendous athletes. They did a great job. They are well coached. We will play against then next time. Right now we split. We are 1-1 having beat each other on their home court. We have some things we have to work on, things they exposed, and we are going to work on them."

                Win or lose, this match was either a tune-up for both teams for regionals and if both teams get to the national tournament, they could be seeing each other once again.

                For the Cougars, They grabbed that 14-4 first set lead and led 19-10 before Iowa Western sliced the lead to 19-15. WNCC finally captured the set 25-19.

                The second set saw both teams locking horns at the start. WNCC held a 7-6 lead before Iowa Western's Olivia Wolodkewitsch had seven straight points for a 14-7 lead. The Reivers kept playing solid to even the match at a set apiece.

                Iowa Western opened up a 6-1 lead behind five Wolodkewitsch points. WNCC came back to take an 11-10 lead and then tied the set at 17-17 later on three Alwaise Villa points. Iowa Western ended up winning the set 25-21 on two Kaci Hohenthaner points.

                The fourth set was a battle between the two top five ranked teams. WNCC went up 12-10 on a big block and kept playing strong with key kills and some stellar defensive plays to trade points with Iowa Western. WNCC led 20-19 on a Lara Picht kill and the two teams were tied at 21-21 on a Barbara Briceno kill.

                Cooper then served two points for a 24-21 Reiver lead only to watch WNCC come back to cut the lead to 24-23 on a Briceno kill. Iowa Western finally won the match on the next point.

                Briceno, Kaawa, and Bia Berti each had a double-double in the match. Briceno knocked home 23 kills and 15 points. She also had five points and an ace serve. Briceno now has 1,124 career kills, which is just one of eight players to record 1,100 kills. She needs 24 more kills to move into the top five, ahead of Diana Marquez who played for the Cougars in 1998 and 1999.

                Kaawa finished with 10 points and 17 digs for her double-double. The freshman from Hawaii also had seven kills, and two ace serves.

                Berti finished with 43 set assists and 10 digs. She also had three points.

                Also for WNCC, Lara Picht tallied nine kills, four points, and four digs; Kaylee Spreier had seven kills, four assisted blocks, two points, and four digs; Kadara Marshall had three kills and two digs; Genesis Benitez had four digs and two set assists; and Villa had seven points and six digs.

                Canales said now they will learn from this loss and head into regionals.

                "Win or lose this is a great match to have before we go to the regional tournament," he said. "We are excited to go and play."

                In other matches in the second day of the WNCC Classic, Northeastern Junior College defeated Laredo Community College 25-17, 30-28, 25-15, and Iowa Western topped NJC 26-16, 25-15, 25-22.