SCOTSBLUFF -  The Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team dropped a Region IX conference contest to Laramie County Community College on Saturday.
The Golden Eagles, who received votes in last week’s NJCAA national poll, earned the 7-0 win to move to 6-0-1 in the conference and 6-2-2 overall. WNCC drops to 3-8 overall and 2-5 in the conference.
WNCC will have three matches next week beginning with a match with Barton Community College on Tuesday at 10 a.m. at Landers Soccer Complex. WNCC will then have two matches over the weekend when Central Wyoming College and Northwest College come to Scottsbluff. Barton is 5-4 overall and the one common opponent saw Barton defeat Lamar 5-1 while WNCC topped Lamar 4-3.
On Saturday against LCCC, the Golden Eagles took control of the match early as Avery Anderson scored just three minutes into the game. After that, the Cougars held the nationally-ranked team in check, playing even with them.
It was in the 36th minute that LCCC went up 2-0 on a Emily Sheather goal and the Golden Eagles led 3-0 at halftime as Ekena Little scored in the 43rd minute.
The second half saw LCCC score four more goals, the first coming just a minute into the half when Sheather scored her second goal. LCCC would add three more goals after that for the win.
WNCC managed just one shot on goal in the match and that came from Julia Santos.
WNCC’s goalkeepers Rory Weizenegger and Feline Groenwold each spent a half in net. Weizenegger had five saves and Groenwold had three saves.

WNCC men earn a tie with LCCC on Saturday

The old saying of “a tie is like kissing your sister” came true and that is exactly what happened Saturday at Landers Soccer Complex when the Western Nebraska Community College and Laramie County Community College men’s soccer team hooked up for a Region IX contest.
WNCC was in firm control of the game until a late goal off a penalty kick gave the Golden Eagles a goal to tie the game and that is where it stood after 90 minutes of play at 2-2.
With the tie, WNCC falls to fourth in the conference standings with 11 points while Laramie County is third with 13 points. The conference is led by Otero with 18 points and Casper with 15 points. WNCC is 3-2-2 in conference and 3-3-5 overall. Teams get three points for a conference win and one point for a tie.
WNCC will wrap up the regular season this week with three home matches. WNCC will host No. 9 Barton Community College on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. and then host Central Wyoming College Friday at 1:30 p.m. and the Northwest College at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
If the Cougars win both conference games this weekend, they can get to 17 points.
Saturday’s action saw the Cougars play well in the first half. WNCC took a quick 1-0 lead when Pau Vera Montoya took a shot 18 yards out for the goal just eight minutes into the contest.
LCCC came back and the Golden Eagles’ Darrien Gates went one-on-one with the goalkeeper and scored in the 17th minute to tie the game.
WNCC went up 2-1 when Mederique Eboucle fed Oscar Molina with a pass and Molina scored from 30 yards out. After that, both teams’ defense stepped up and neither team scored the rest of the half.
The second half was a defensive battle as neither team was getting a lot of shots and both defenses were playing strong. WNCC was within four minutes of claiming the win when a penalty kick was called. LCCC’s Evan Perez lined up to take the PK and WNCC goalkeeper Owen Henderson made the save but the ball went sideways and Perez took the rebound and put the ball into the net for the tie.
That is where the game ended as neither team got a good shot off for a chance to win the game after that.
WNCC had 11 shots in the game while LCCC had 16.
Owen Henderson had eight saves in net for the Cougars.

WNCC volleyball sweeps McCook on Saturday

Dani Cruz hammered down 18 kills and the Western Nebraska Community College moved to second place in the South Conference with a straight-set win over McCook Community College 25-21, 25-20, 25-23 Saturday afternoon at Cougar Palace.
Cruz, the red-shirt sophomore from Mexico, said this was an important game and the team responded.
“I think we played really solid. I think everyone was doing their job and we stayed composed when under pressure and took advantage of the moments,” she said. “These two wins this weekend are really important because we started the season kind of rough and having this little streak of winning has been special for everyone. It just makes us feel more confident.”
The win was huge as the team moved to 4-1 in conference play while McCook dropped to 3-2. The Cougars are 6-16 overall and will have three matches this week, beginning with a home match Tuesday at 6 p.m. against Casper College, a team the Cougars lost to in five sets on September 2.
After that, the Cougars will hit the road for two important sub-region contests when they face Trinidad State College on Friday and then Otero College on Saturday.
Cruz said the game Tuesday is important to keep building towards the Region IX Tournament in which they host November 5-8.
“I think it really motivates us to play against Casper because last time we lost in five,” she said. “We know we have the fire in us to win against them and we know we know we can do it in three sets. We just have to have the attitude.”
All three sets were battles between two evenly matched teams. The first set saw WNCC build a 13-9 lead after a Cruz point and later led 16-12 on two Eli Braithwaite points. WNCC pushed the lead to 19-13 on two Emma Hergenreder points and led 21-14. That was when McCook came storming back as they cut the deficit to 22-20. WNCC finished off the first set on a Cruz kill to win 25-21.
The second set was back and forth. WNCC held a 12-11 lead when Cruz hammered a kill and then served three points for a 16-11 lead. WNCC led 23-17 and held on for the 25-120 lead.
The third set saw WNCC run to a 7-2 lead behind three Cruz service points. WNCC led 12-8 before McCook came storming back to take a 14-12 lead. McCook led 20-17 when the Cougars got the serve back on a missed serve. Kyana Gabriel served two points to tie things at 20.
McCook came back to lead 22-21 but Cruz got a kill and Natalia Nowak had two service points for a 24-22 lead. WNCC won 25-23.
Cruz led the team with 18 kills, nine service points, five digs, and two aces. Keira Zelada and Gabriel each had nine kills. Zelada also had five digs and two blocks while Gabriel had six points, three digs, and an ace.
Anika Davison finished the game with two kills, while Braithwaite had two kills, four digs, four points, an ace serve, and three blocks. Hergenreder tallied three points with eight digs and an ace serve. Nowak had 39 set assists, eight points, and four digs, while Alex Gonzalez-Orozco had nine digs; and Nadiyyah Northern had six kills and a block.