SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb -  The first Region IX championship participants were revealed as Casper College and Northeastern Junior College secured their spots in the Northwest Plains A bracket with hard-fought semi-final wins Thursday at Western Nebraska Community College’s Cougar Palace.
Casper earned the championship match trip with a 5-set thriller against Western Nebraska Community College, topping the Cougars 25-15, 22-25, 25-9, 18-25, 15-10. The Thunderbirds will face Northeastern Junior College, the No. 4 team in the nation. The Plainsmen needed four sets to get by North Platte Community College 25-19, 25-22, 23-25, 25-10.
Casper and North Platte will play for the NW Plains A regional title at 5 p.m. at WNCC. The other games on Friday in the NW Plains B bracket, where the winner will also earn a regional title and advance to the national tournament will pit Laramie County Community College against North Platte at 12 noon and WNCC facing Central Wyoming College at 2:30 p.m.
LCCC swept past Trinidad State College 25-14, 25-15, 25-19, while Central Wyoming needed four games to get by Gillette 24-26, 25-15, 25-23, 25-13 Thursday afternoon.
The two semifinal matches saw Casper’s Peyton Carruth get 16 kills in the win over WNCC. WNCC was led by Keira Zelada and Dani Cruz with eight kills each. The other semifinal saw Kiera Heaven Loe lead the Plainswomen with 18 kills while Makenna Stephenson had 13 kills for North Platte.
The Casper and WNCC match on Thursday was an intense battle. The first set saw WNCC jump to a 6-3 after three Maria Niedzwiecka service points. Casper came back outscoring WNCC 13-5 that included a 6-point service run from Gemma McNamara for a 20-11 lead. Casper went on to win the set 15-15.
The second set saw WNCC take a 7-6 lead after two Emma Hergenreder points. The two teams exchanged points and NJC had a 17-16 lead. That was when the Cougars got two points from Alex Gonzalez-Orozco for a 19-17 lead. WNCC led 21-8 and later 23-20 and won the set 25-22 on a Eli Braithwaite point.
The third set was all Casper as the T-Birds used four long service runs to easily win 25-9.
The fourth set saw the Cougars with their backs against the wall as Casper led 12-7. That was when things changed as Natalia Nowak served six straight points to put WNCC up 14-13, Later Dani Cruz had two points for a 17-13 lead and Gonzalez-Orozco finished off the set with three points and the 25-18 win to force a fifth set.
The fifth set saw Casper go up 4-1 on two Aubrey Hacket points. WNCC made it 5-4 on a Nadiyyah Northern kill, but Carruth came back with four points, including two aces for a 10-4 lead. Makenna Lorenzen had three points to make it 14-6. Braithwaite got a kill and then Gonzalez-Orozco served three points for a 14-10 deficit before NJC got the 15th point,
Casper had 57 kills for the match and hit .166 while WNCC had 32 kills while hitting .121. Kyana Gabriel had six kills with nine points and four service points. Cruz and Zelada led the team with eight kills. Cruz also had five points and eight digs. Zelada had eight kills with a block.
Braithwaite finished with three solo blocks, while Niedzwiecka had two kills, two digs, and four points/
Also for the Cougars, Nowak had two kills, 22 set assists, nine points, and 15 digs; Gonzalez-Orozco had 11 points with eight digs and two aces; Northern had six kills and two solo blocks; Hergenreder had eight digs, two aces, and four points.