It will be No. 11 Central Wyoming College against No. 13 Northeastern Junior College for the Northwest Plains A Region IX championship on Friday after both squads earned sweeps on Thursday at Cougar Palace in the Region IX tournament.
Central Wyoming College earned the right to play for their first Region IX title after defeating No. 18 Western Nebraska Community College 25-18, 25-16, 25-22 in the first semifinal. NJC followed that up with a 25-23, 25-15, 25-14 win over Northwest College in the other semifinal. The championship match is slated for 4 p.m. on Friday.
There were two other matches on the day in the elimination bracket where the winner of the elimination bracket will earn the Northwest Plains B regional title that will be decided Saturday. Those two matches saw both winning teams earn sweeps. Eastern Wyoming College stayed alive with a 25-21, 25-20, 25-13 win over McCook Community College while Otero College earned a sweep over Trinidad State College 25-19, 25-22, 25-22.
Friday's contests will pit EWC against Northwest at 12 noon while WNCC faces Otero at 2 p.m. in elimination matches. The two winners will then face each other at 11 a.m. Saturday with the winner advancing to Saturday's championship against the loser of Friday's championship match.
WNCC assistant coach Brooke Kaawa said the team had plenty of good things to take from the match. It was just a matter that they couldn't stop the many runs that Central Wyoming made.
"I thought there were a lot of good things that came out of today's game but it's definitely not where we want to be," Kaawa, who played for the Cougars in 2017, said. "We saw little peaks as to what we are capable of doing but it's a matter of how the girls respond when times get tough that really defines them."
The Cougars did play with Central Wyoming and had big leads in the first and third sets, but they just couldn't sustain them against a Rustler team that had a big block and played well defensively.
"There were definitely spurts of fore and energy, but we need to find how to keep that consistent and not just situational," Kaawa said. "Doing so will better our game."
The Cougars led 5-1 in the first set after three service points from Ale Meoni. But that was when Central Wyoming got on service runs of their own. First it was Haruka Sugimoto with four points for a 6-5 Central lead and then Makenzie Templeton had three points to put the Rustlers up 10-6.
WNCC fought back grabbing a 14-12 lead behind four points from Macey Boggs. WNCC led 15-13 after a Meoni kill. Central came back to grab an 18-15 lead and led 20-16. WNCC sliced the deficit to 21-18, but Ava Rasmussen had the final three points for the 25-18 win.
The second set saw the Cougars and Central knotted at 4-4 after two AnaKaren Chavez points and a Laura Milori kill. Central's Rasmussen followed with three service points for a 13-8 lead and then Sugimoto had three more for a 17-10 lead. Central closed out the second set 25-16 on a Templeton kill.
Meoni started the third set with three points for a 4-0 lead. WNCC led 9-2 on a Jenna Curtis kill and led 13-5 after two Chavez points that was aided by three straight Milori kills.
WNCC led 15-7 when the shift in momentum flipped as Kaylee Nielsen had a run of five points to cut the Rustler deficit to 15-13 and then Alondra Hernandez had five points to give Central the lead at 18-16.
The Cougars kept battling cutting the lead to 22-19 and later 23-22 after two Chavez points, but Rasmussen finished off the match with a kill for the 25-22 win.
Boggs and Erica Fava each had a double-double in the contest. Fava led the way with 11 kills with 10 digs. Fava had just two points and a solo block. Boggs had 13 digs, 18 set assists, and five points.
Three Cougars finished with six kills including Meoni, Curtis, and Milori. Hyleigh Fornstrom had five kills and six points, while Angel Nahinu had two kills. Juliana Oliveira had a kill.
Meoni also had 10 digs, two set assists, two aces, and six points, while Curtis had three digs.
Also for the Cougars, Jullia Moccellin had 12 set assists and six digs; Chavez had seven digs and five points; and Alexis Keoho had three digs and two set assists.
WNCC will look to stay alive Friday when they face Otero. Kaawa said Friday is very important as they need to keep winning to have a chance at a regional title. A loss and the season is over.
"Friday is very important if we want to keep our season going," she said. "The girls need to take this loss as a lesson and really come back fighting hard and long, which they are capable of doing. They really need to focus on themselves and really pull through together."