MCC Volleyball faces Eastern Wyoming in Tournament Opener

The McCook Community College volleyball team opens Region IX post-season tournament play Wednesday against Eastern Wyoming. MCC (21-9) gained the fourth seed in the south division of the region and face the top seed in the north, the Lancers (23-9), in an 8 p.m. contest.

It’s one of four games to start of the double-elimination tournament in Cheyenne, Wyo. and hosted by Laramie County Community College. The top two teams that emerge this week advance to the National Junior College Athletic Association championships Nov. 20-23 at the Dunn Center at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn.

Eastern Wyoming went 11-1 in the north division. They began the season at a .500 clip and were 6-6 on Sept. 7 when they went on a 14-match win streak which ended Oct. 22 at home against Western Wyoming. EWC went 3-3 in the final six matches of the season also losing to Northeastern JC and to Western Wyoming (the second seed in the north) at home Friday.

The Lancers are seventh in the nation with 1,518 kills on the season, leading the north at 12.05 kills per set and a .204 hitting percentage, 10.67 assists per set, 1.91 blocks and 1.83 service aces. The Lancers have 2,312 digs on the season, third best in the nation.

The EWO offense is powered by two of the top three hitters in the north in sophomore right side Julia Dolan and freshman outside Una Stepic with 343 and 337 kills on the season. Dolan hits it at .243 on the year and has 66 total blocks while Stepic led the team with 995 total attacks and rounds out her game with 283 digs and 39 blocks.

Sophomore middle Siala Unufe, leads the entire region and is sixth in the nation with 136 blocks (1.14 per set). She also tops the region with her .425 hitting percentage on 229 kills and is 20th in the nation with 54 service aces, which tops the team.

Sophomore libero Boden Liljedahl anchors the defense with 704 digs on the year which is second most among all players on the 90 teams playing Division I JUCO volleyball.

MCC has only faced Eastern Wyoming one time in the post-season tournament since Kobza took over the program in 2016. The Lady Indians squared off with Eastern Wyoming in 2021 in the consolation round when the Lancers swept MCC 3-0.

Eastern Wyoming went 4-5 this season against teams in the south with three of those losses coming to No. 16 Western Nebraska, one loss to No. 4 NJC and the other loss to Trinidad State. The Lancers also picked up a pair of wins over Otero, one over Lamar and one over Trinidad State.

MCC went 2-0 against the north this season with both of those matches coming at home Aug. 24 at the home tournament when the Lady Indians downed Casper 3-0 and beat Laramie County Community College 3-2. Casper was ranked No. 16 in the preseason polls but finished the season 8-24 and did not qualify for the post-season. LCCC finished 11-19 but gained the No. 4 seed in the north.

The Lady Indians opened the season 7-1 in back-to-back tournaments at home in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center followed by a 2-2 showing at the North Central Texas College tournament in Gainesville Texas. After opening the Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference schedule with a pair of wins at home the team went 2-2 at the Blue Dragon Classic in Hutchinson, Kan. before sweeping North Platte at home on Sept. 24 to give Kobza’s team a 14-5 record.

However, since that time MCC went just 4-6 against Region IX teams with their only wins against the last-place teams in the Region IX South, Lamar and Otero – neither of which qualified for the post season. The Lady Indians did go 3-0 to win the final Nebraska Conference title and reached the 20-win mark for the eight time in the past nine seasons under Kobza (the only exception was the Covid-shortened 2021 season which took place in the spring and MCC went 17-12).

The Lady Indians offensive attack was led during the regular season by sophomores Romina Martinez Castro (Cochabamba, Bolivia) and Caylin Barnett (Southwest High School) who had 287 and 295 kills along with freshman Charlee Russick (Berthoud, Colo.) who was third on the team with 221 kills and sophomore middle Rowan Tribelhorn (Yuma, Colo.) who had 196 as well as leading the team with 113 blocks. Freshman Ella Verts (Marshall, Mo.) was second on the team with 87 blocks with Martinez and Barnett having 67 and 50 total blocks.

After playing in just nine of MCC’s first 30 matches and totaling six kills in her time on the court, sophomore outside Emerie Rios (Sterling, Colo.) emerged with 54 kills in her final seven matches including a career high 11 in the season finale Saturday against Otero.

Defensively sophomore Cibeles Bothwell (Spring, Texas) was named the south’s defensive player of the week three times during the season and led the south with 532 digs. Barnett was second with 376 and Martinez third with 309.

A pair of freshmen setters led the passing attack with Megan Walker (Haxtun, Colo.) leading the team with 542 assists and Abby Thompson (Bison, S.D.) coming on late when MCC switched to a 6-2 alignment to record 427 assists. Walker led the team with 40 service aces followed with 31 by Bothwell, 29 by Martinez and 27 by Barnett.

A win in the opening round Wednesday would advance to the Lady Indians into the championship semi-final where they would play the winner of the match between Central Wyoming and Western Nebraska. That game would be at 8 p.m. Thursday. A first-round loss would relegate MCC to the consolation round where they would play the loser of the match between Laramie County Community College and Northeastern Junior College. That elimination game would be Thursday at 2:30 p.m. 

Up-to-date information about MCC volleyball including livestream links, schedule, statistics, rosters, photos and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com

REGION IX D1 VOLLEYBALL

FINAL SOUTH STANDINGS

(Top Four Teams qualify for Region IX Tournament)
                                W-L      PCT            OVERALL
Northeastern JC      10-0   1.000            27-4

Western Nebraska   8-2      .800            26-8

Trinidad State         6-4      .600            23-8

McCook CC              4-6       .400            21-11

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lamar                     2-7       .222              7-20
Otero College          0-9      .000              6-27

 

FINAL SOUTH STANDINGS

(Top Four Teams qualify for Region IX Tournament)
                                W-L      PCT            OVERALL
Eastern Wyoming    11-1     .917            23-9

Western Wyoming   9-3      .750            21-7

Central Wyoming     7-5      .583            16-10

Larmie County CC    6-6      .500            11-19

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Casper College       5-7       .417               8-24
Northwest College   4-8      .333              20-9

Gillette College        0-12    .000              10-14

 

REGION IX TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

At Cheyenne, Wyo. hosted by Laramie County CC

(Two teams advance to the NJCAA National Tournament)

WEDNESDAY

     Match 1 – Trinidad State vs. Western Wyoming, noon

     Match 2 – Central Wyoming vs. Western Nebraska 2:30 p.m.

     Match 3 – Laramie County CC vs. Northeastern JC, 5:30 p.m.

     Match 4 – McCook vs. Eastern Wyoming 8 p.m.

THURSDAY

    Match 5 – Match 1 loser vs. Match 3 loser, noon (Elimination game)

    Match 6 – Match 2 loser vs. Match 4 loser, 2:30 p.m. (Elimination game)

    Match 7 – Match 1 winner vs. Match 3 winner, 5:30 p.m.

    Match 8 – Match 2 winner vs. Match 4 winner, 8 p.m.

FRIDAY

     Match 9 – Match 5 winner vs. Match 8 loser, 1 p.m. (Elimination game)

     Match 10 – Match 6 winner vs. Match 7 loser, 3:30 p.m. (Elimination game)

     Match 11 – Match 7 winner vs. Match 8 winner, 6 p.m. (First championship)

SATURDAY

     Match 12 – Match 9 winner vs. Match 10 winner, noon (Elimination game)

     Match 13 – Match 12 winner vs. Match 11 loser 5 p.m. (Second championship)