WNCC volleyball wins twice at Reiver Invite

                COUNCIL Bluffs, Iowa – Lilly Zwart pounded down 49 kills in two matches and the Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team recorded a pair of victories at the Reiver Invite in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Friday.

                Zwart had 25 kills in a five-set win over Butler Community College 25-17, 24-26, 19-25, 25-17, 15-6, and then had a double-double of 24 kills and 15 service points in a four-set win over Jefferson College. The win over Butler came after Butler beat No. 3 Northeastern Junior College.

                The Cougars will have two more matches on Saturday when they face Hutchinson Community College and Iowa Western Community College. Hutchinson went 1-1 on Friday with a win over Jefferson and falling to Iowa Western. Iowa Western went 1-1 as they were swept by NJC.

                Against Butler, the Cougars had seven players finish with a kill. Zwart tallied 25 points with seven digs followed by a trio of players with four kills with Ahleejah Tovo-Sunia, Chloe Grady, and Tamika Eastman. Nora Marginean and Dessiah Christopher each had three kills while Finja Schul had two.

Marginean also had 42 set assists with a solo block. Schul had three aces with three solo blocks and six assisted blocks.

Taylor Tyser and Alex Gonzalez-Orozco each had 13 digs. Tyser had seven aces while Gonzalez-Orozco had three aces. Eastman also tallied four aces, while Schul had three, and Marginean had two.

The match against Jefferson saw WNCC drop the first set 25-19 and then responded with wins in the next three.  

The second set saw two big service runs to open the set. Zwart had a 4-point run followed by Gonzalez-Orosco with a 5-point run as they took the second 24-14.

The third set saw Jefferson  leading 15-12 before Tyser had a four point run. The two squads were knotted at 20-20 when Marginean served three points and won the set 25-23 on a Zwart kill.

The final set saw Jefferson lead 20-17. Marginean had three big points to make it 22-20 and would win the match on a Zwart kill for the 25-22 win.

Zwart added four aces and three digs to her 24 kills and 15 points. Schul had nine kills with two digs and two points; and Christopher had eight kills.