CHEYENNE, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team stayed alive at the Region IX Volleyball Tournament in Cheyenne, Wyoming,
                WNCC put together a solid performance in earning a sweep over McCook Community College 25-18, 25-16, 25-18 as they life to play another day. WNCC will have another elimination game as they go for the second Region IX title on Friday at 2:30 p.m. against Western Wyoming Community College. Western Wyoming fell to Laramie County Community College in five sets 22-25, 25-21, 17-25, 25-23, 15-13.
                The other side of the bracket saw Eastern Wyoming earn a spot in the finals against Laramie County with a sweep over Central Wyoming College 25-21, 25-23, 25-18.  The first championship game between, EWC and LCCC will be at 5 p.m. Friday with the winner qualifying for the national tournament.
                Central Wyoming will continue in the second bracket as they will face Northeastern Junior College at noon on Friday. NJC needed four sets to top Trinidad State College 25-11, 25-16, 15-25, 25-14. The winner of Friday’s elimination game will play Saturday at 11 a.m. with the winner advancing to play the loser of the first championship game at 4 p.m. for a berth to the national tournament.
                WNCC’s match was one where the Cougars trailed just once in all three sets and that was 1-0 in the second set. The win was one where the Cougars had strong serving with seven aces and just three service errors. The Cougars also pounded down 28 kills.
                Lilly Zwart led the offense with 10 kills followed by seven from Tamika Eastman, six from Ahleejah Tovo-Sunia, and three from Finja Schul.
                On the serving side, Nora Marginean had 14 services points with three aces, while Tovo-Sunia had seven, Taylor Tyser with six, and Eastman and Zwart each with five.
                The Cougars also played defense a lot better Thursday than in the loss on Wednesday with just three serve receive errors. The Cougars even had two pancake saves on the defensive side. Tyser finished with 13 digs followed by Alex Gonzalez-Orozco with nine, Marginean with eight, Eastman with seven, Tovo-Sunia with six, and Zwart with five.
                The other thing that was key in the win was the team’s blocking, where they had 13 assisted blocks, led by Schul with four and Chloe Grady with three.
                WNCC opened the match with an 8-3 lead in the first only to watch McCook come back to slice the deficit to 14-12, WNCC came back with strong serving to lead 20-13 after a block wall from Marginean and Schul and then Schul served two points. The Cougars went up 23-16 on another block and won the set 25-18 on a Tyser service point and a big block by Schul.
                McCook had the first point in the second set, but after that, Marginean went for five straight points for a 5-1 lead. McCook came back to trail 9-7, but the Cougars put together some clutch serving and timely kills including three points from Tyser for a 22-12 lead. WNCC won the second set 25-16.
                Marginean started the third set with five straight points for a 5-0 lead. The lead was just single digits a couple times, the last time at 9-8. Eastman stopped the service rally with a kill and then Tovo-Sunia had three points behind an ace serve and two kills from Eastman for a 13-8 lead.
                The score was 14-12, when Marginean went to service again and had four points including two aces and a 19-12 lead. Tyser had a run of three late points for a 24-17 lead including an ace. Schul then got the final kill for the 25-18 win.
 
Thursday’s results
NJC 3, Trinidad State 1
WNCC 3, McCook 0
LCCC 3, Western Wyoming 2
EWC 3, Central Wyoming 0
Friday’s Games
11 a.m. – Central Wyoming vs. NJC
2:30 p.m. – WNCC vs. Western Wyoming
5 p.m. – EWC vs. LCCC (First Championship Game)
Saturday’s Games
11 a.m. – Central/NJC winner vs. WNCC/WWyoming winner
4 p.m. – 11 a.m. winner vs. Friday championship game loser (Second Title Contest)