MCC splits pair of Saturday matches at home triangular

The McCook Community College volleyball team split a pair of games Saturday falling to Otero Junior College in five sets and then sweeping Northeast Community College.

Otero Junior College downed MCC 15-25, 25-21, 25-17, 20-25, 15-11. MCC came back to sweep Northeast 25-14, 25-20, 25-22. Otero swept Northeast in the other match.

"We still have some work to do and some things to perfect," MCC Coach Hayley Kobza said. "This weekend showed us we are still a young team but we can still battle through things."

The MCC coach is in her sixth season in McCook, and picked up her 100^th career win last weekend at the Wyobraska Tournament going 3-1. This weekend MCC goes 2-1 at home including a 1-1 start against Region IX opponents.

"Honestly I think it was mostly mental errors that hurt us this weekend and those are things that can be easily fixed overnight," Kobza said.

Sophomore setter Janie Sommer (Maxwell) led the MCC offense over the three-game home stand with 120 assists including 46 in both the Friday win over Trinidad and today's loss to Otero JC.

 "Janie Sommer played really well for us all three games. She moved the ball around and that really helped us out a lot especially this last match," Kobza said.

MCC goes to 13-8 on the season and now hits the road for eight straight matches starting Tuesday in Sterling, Colo. against Northeast Junior College followed by a match Thursday in Lamar, Colo. The next home match for MCC will be Oct. 20 against Northeast Junior College.

"We saw some great things from a lot of different people and now we just need to put it all together at the same time," Kobza said.

For more photos from today's match, please visit the MCC Facebook page at:

https://www.facebook.com/MPCCMcCook

Otero JC 3, McCook CC 2: MCC won the first and fourth sets 25-15, 25-20, Otero won the second and third sets 25-21, 25-17, and took the final set 15-11.

A quartet of MCC players posted double-digit kills. Freshman Thaynara Isabela (São Paulo, Brazil) had 12 to go along with seven digs and two assist blocks. Sophomore Amerika Jones (Honolulu, Hawaii) had 11 kills and five assist blocks and sophomore transfer Mia Pena (Greeley, Colo.) had 11 kills with two assist blocks. Freshman Victoria Thomas (Houston, Texas) had 10 kills in the match.

Sophomore Jordan Jerome (Rawlins, Wyo.) had four kills and five digs. Freshman Jisell Chumacero (Eaton, Colo.) had was credited with three kills, three assist blocks and a solo block. Makayla Brown (freshman, Colorado Springs) had one kill and two blocks.

Sophomore Janie Sommer (Maxwell) dished out a match-high 46 assists, had three kills, one solo block and two serving aces.

Sophomore Kaylee Palmieri (Gibbon) led MCC with 10 digs and had two service aces. Freshman McKenna Crews (Loveland, Colo.) had five digs and one ace.

The Rattlers improve to 7-15 with the two wins Saturday.

McCook CC 3, Northeast CC, 0: MCC took the final match of the day over Northeast 25-14, 25-20, and 25-22.

Thaynara Isabela led the MCC attack with 11 kills, and added a service ace and an assist block. Jordan Jerome was credited with nine kills, five digs, and three aces.

Victoria Thomas had eight kills and one assist block. Mia Pena had five kills and two assist blocks. Jisell Chumacero led MCC with three assist blocks to go along with three kills.

Janie Sommer had 28 assists, six digs, three block assists and an ace. Kaylee Palmieri led MCC with nine digs.

The Hawks fall to 4-15 on the season.