Macey Boggs had a triple-double and Jenna Curtis and Erika Fava finished with double-doubles as the 18th-ranked Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team won its opener of the Region IX tournament with a sweep over Eastern Wyoming College Wednesday afternoon at Cougar Palace 25-23, 25-10, 25-21.
WNCC, 23-12, will face No. 11 Central Wyoming College in the semifinals on Thursday at 4 p.m. with the winner advancing to Friday's championship match. Central Wyoming won its quarterfinal match over McCook Community College in interesting fashion in five sets 25-18, 26-28, 25-11, 18-25, 15-8.
The other side of the bracket will pit Northwest College against No. 13 Northeastern Junior College in the semis at 6 p.m. Thursday. Northwest needed four sets to get by Otero College 25-15, 23-25, 25-10, 27-25, while NJC got by Trinidad State College 22-25, 25-13, 25-23, 25-20.
The early matches Thursday in the double-elimination tournament will pit EWC against McCook at noon and Otero taking on Trinidad at 2 p.m. The losers end their season while the winners advance into elimination matches Friday.
There were four play-in matches Wednesday morning to get to the bracketed portion of the tournament. Those contests saw EWC sweep past Lamar Community College 25-6, 25-18, 25-15; Otero taking out Western Wyoming Community College 25-21, 27-25, 26-17; McCook knocking out Casper College in five sets 22-25, 25-16, 24-26, 25-20, 15-10; and Trinidad getting by Laramie County Community College 25-23, 19-25, 25-19, 25-20.
In WNCC's win over the Lancers, a team the Cougars split against during the regular season, the Cougars played well in the match.
Laura Milori, who had three kills in the win, said that team played with a lot of energy to get the opening tourney win.
"I think the team played really good today," the freshman from Brazil said. "We all bring good energy to the court and all of us gave the best effort that we could. We had pretty good communication the whole game and we could feel that everyone wanted to win."
WNCC played good defense, but also had strong serving. Curtis and Boggs each had double-figure points from the service line. Curtis had 11 points with two aces while Boggs had 10 points.
"I think the areas of the game that stood out today was serving," Milori said. "We had a lot of good serves and a lot of aces, too."
The first set between WNCC and EWC was a battle. EWC took a 5-3 lead after two points from Asli Erdi. WNCC came back to lead 13-8 on three Boggs points. WNCC went up 17-12 on a Curtis kill only to watch the Lancers come back to cut the lead to 18-16 on a point by Halle Hogan.
EWC sliced the lead to one, 22-21, on a Vanja Tomic point, but Curtis got a kill to avoid the tie and then Ale Meoni had a service point for a 24-21 lead. WNCC won the first set 25-22 on a Erica Fava kill.
WNCC controlled the second set as Boggs started with four straight service points and then led 8-1 after three points from Meoni. The strong serving continued as Curtis had a run of seven straight, including a couple aces, for a 19-4 lead. WNCC won the second 25-10.
WNCC started the third set strong with the Cougars grabbing a 5-1 lead on two Hyleigh Fornstrom points. EWC came back to slice the lead to one, 7-6, on a point by Alyssa George. WNCC went ahead 14-7 on four Boggs points and led 16-10 on a Curtis kill.
EWC cut the lead to 20-15 on a George point and got to within 23-20 on a couple points from Tomic. WNCC won the third set 25-21.
Boggs led the way with a triple-double of 16 digs, 26 set assists, and 10 points. Curtis had 11 points and 12 kills for her double-double. Erica Fava finished with 10 kills, 11 digs, four points, and two assisted blocks.
Meoni had 10 kills with seven points, three aces, and six digs. Milori had three kills, while Angel Nahinu and Fornstrom each two kills. Fornstrom had three digs as well while Nahinu had two digs, a solo block, and two assisted blocks.
Also for the Cougars, Jullia Moccellin had 11 assists, two kills and three digs; AnaKaren Chavez had 11 digs and three points; and Alexis Keoho had a dig.
Thursday will be another tough match against a team that has defeated the Cougars three times this season. Milori said they need to be on the top of their game against Central.
"We need to want the game," she said. "We need to bring all the energy that we have just like we did today. We need to go for every ball and never give up. Everyone's energy is needed."