Lady Indians claim second straight NCCAC title

Lady Indians claim second straight NCCAC title

The McCook Community College volleyball team claimed its second straight Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference Championship Tuesday downing North Platte in four sets 25-22, 21-25, 25-21, 25-23.

"That was a really tough match to win. I thought it was an even match for both sides but I thought we struggled the whole time," said MCC Coach Hayley Kobza. "This was not our best volleyball."

Four sophomores were honored during sophomore night: Mallory Brown (Colorado Springs,) Kiera Barr (Granby, Colo.,) and Bailey Honn (McCook) and Maddie Kleewein (North Platte).

"We had to move a lot of players around tonight. Emily Barr had to move around to the right side and she did really well, Jayceea Hanson stepped in and did really good in the middle," Kobza said.

Freshman Fernanda Canedo, (Cochabamba, Boliva) led MCC with 12 kills. Bailey Honn had eight kills and four block assists.

Kallie Cathcart, (Holly, Colo.) had six kills and six block assists. Freshman Emily Barr (Hershey) had six kills and three block assists.

Mallory Brown had three block assists and freshman Jayceea Hanson had two block assists.

"We have a lot of work to do before Friday and we need to get everybody healed up," Kobza said.

Freshman Mackenzie Anderson (Ogallala) missed the game after sustaining a concussion in Friday's match with Western Nebraska. Canedo injured her wrist during the Tuesday match and Cathcart tested positive Tuesday for strep throat.

The win gives MCC a 19-8 record overall and an undefeated 6-0 mark in the NCCAC for the second year in a row. North Platte goes to 11-18 and 3-2 in conference.

"I told the girls going into this that we weren't thinking about conference championships because if we play MCC volleyball it will take care of itself," Kobza said. "But when we won conference last year, it hadn't been done since 1980 and now we've done it two years."

MCC, which is 3-2 in south sub-region play, can reach the 20-win mark for a third-straight season with a win in one of the team's two final home games Friday at 6 p.m. against Otero Junior College (16-6, 4-1 in Region IX South Play) or Saturday at 4 p.m. against Trinidad State (7-19, 1-4). The Lady Indians finish the season with three Region IX south games on the road at Lamar (Oct. 25), Northeastern (Oct. 26), and Western (Oct. 31) before a game a nonconference game at Cloud County Nov. 2.

For the latest on MCC volleyball and all MCC sports including, schedules, rosters, photographs, and other news, please check out the official home of MCC Athletics at: https://mccindians.com/index.aspx?path=wvball

For more photographs from tonight's game, please visit the McCook Community College Facebook Page at: https://www.facebook.com/MPCCMcCook/

If you can make it to the game, you can watch it at https://mccindians.com/sports/2016/11/10/tw.aspx?tab=tribewatch