CASPER, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team have been road warriors so far this season and Tuesday night was no different as the Cougars traveled to Casper, Wyoming, to face Casper College on the road.
The contest was a barn-burner as Casper came into the contest with a 7-1 record. The Cougars were one set away from capturing the win, but in the end, the T-Birds won the fourth and fifth sets in earning the 25-17, 13-25, 26-28, 25-14, 15-10 win.
WNCC will have eight more matches on the road as they compete in the LCCC Region IX Challenge this weekend in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and then four more matches September 12-13 at the NJC Pizza Hut Classic. WNCC’s first home match, after 17 matches on the road, will be September 23 against Northeastern Junior College.
Tuesday night, however, the Cougars put together a strong performance as Allie Twamley (Cheyenne, Wyo.), Natalia Malinowska (Warsaw, Poland), and Kyana Gabriel (Hilo, Hawaii) each had a double-double. Malinowska nearly had a triple-double as the freshman tallied 22 set assists, 13 digs, and eight points. Gabriel, a sophomore, almost had a triple-double with 10 kills, 16 digs, seven points, and two solo blocks.
Twamley finished the match with 14 set assists and 10 digs.
WNCC had three players that had double-figure kills. While Gabriel had 10 kills, Dani Cruz (Guadalajara, Mexico) led the way with 14 kills while Nadiyyah Northern (Avondale, Arizona) had 10 kills. Maria Niedzwiecka (Poland) had seven kills.
The Cougars finished with 50 kills on the night and had 10 solo blocks. Keira Zelada (Lima, Peru) had three solos while Northern, Gabriel, and Niedzwiecka all had two solos.
Alex Gonzalez-Orozco (Gering), who was named the Region IX South Defensive Player of the Week that was released on Tuesday, finished with 31 digs, four assists, four points, and two kills.
Cruz tallied nine digs, five points, three assists to go with her 14 kills.
The match itself was tight that took over two hours to play. The first set saw Casper outscore WNCC 7-2 to close out the set with the 25-17 win.
The second set saw WNCC never trail as Malinowska went on a 5-point service run for a 12-3 lead and the Cougars closed out the set 25-13 after Gonzalez-Orozco served two points and Cruz had the set-ending kill.
The third set saw Casper jump to a 6-2 lead and led 21-18 late. WNCC came back with two service points from Twamley and led 23-22. Casper came right back and led 26-25. WNCC took advantage of a missed serve and Gabriel served the final two points for the 28-26 win.
The fourth set Casper jump to a 5-1 lead and led 8-3. WNCC cut the deficit to 14-11 on two Cruz service points, but Casper won the fourth 25-14 setting up the fifth set.
Casper jumped to a 7-2 lead early, but the Cougars came within three, 12-9 on a Niedzwiecka service point, but that was it as Casper won 15-10.