MCC Volleyball to play LCCC in tournament opener Wednesday
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
McCook Community College | 25 | 18 | 18 | 0 |
|
Laramie County Community College | 27 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
The McCook Community College volleyball team will open the Region IX tournament against Laramie County Community College Wednesday at 2 p.m. This is a double-elimination tournament with the eight top teams from Region IX competing for two spots in the National Junior College Athletic Association National Tournament.
"We want to come in not talking about what we are going to do, because we are going to show it all on the court," said MCC Coach Hayley Kobza.
MCC was the third seed in the south sub-region with a 7-3 record against teams in the south and 21-9 overall. The LCCC Golden Eagles were the second seed in the north with a 7-3 record and 16-10 overall.
The MCC-LCCC match is the first of four on Wednesday. In other matches, Northeastern Junior College will play Northwest College at 4 p.m., No. 4 Western Nebraska will take on Casper at 6 p.m. and No. 5 Central Wyoming will play Otero Junior College at 8 p.m.
THE GOLDEN EAGLES: MCC and Laramie County faced off at the MCC Labor Day Tournament when MCC won 3-0.
The Golden Eagles went 5-3 against teams in the south region this season. After losing matches to the top three seeded teams (MCC, Western Nebraska and Northeastern JC) in August, LCCC went 5-0 against bottom three seeds (1-0 vs Otero and 2-0 against both Trinidad and Lamar).
Since Sept. 30, LCCC has won seven of its last nine and its final four matches of the season with the only losses in that time coming to the top two seeds in the tournament, and two teams ranked in the top five in the nation in Western Nebraska and Casper.
For Laramie County, freshman Demi Stauffenberg leads the Golden Eagles with 263 kills on the season, (2.83 per set) and sophomore Rigan McInerney had 253. In the middle, sophomore Nicoly Weiwanko had 86 blocks. Sophomore Brooke Parker is the team leader in passing with 692 assists. Libero Sadie Christiansen led LCCC with 358 digs, Stauffenberg is second with 262.
Laramie County is fourth in the north in kills with 977 on the season (10.51 percent) with a .154 hitting percentage. The Golden Eagles average 1.89 blocks per set, 15.45 digs, and 1.91 service aces (178 total) on the year.
THE LADY INDIANS: MCC was second in the south with 1,252 kills (11.38 per set) with a .172 hitting percentage, 1.92 blocks per set, 16.46 digs and 2.06 aces per set (227 total for the year). MCC's 1,811 digs on the season were the most among all 12 Region IX teams.
Kobza's team swept Laramie County 25-19, 25-19, 25-12 back in August. The Golden Eagles are the only team from the Region IX north division that MCC faced this year.
MCC went 7-3 in the south sub-region standings, the best mark since Kobza assumed head coaching duties in 2016. MCC has only posted a winning mark in the south region one other time -- when the team went 6-4 in 2019. Two of MCC's three losses this year in the south region came against Western Nebraska with the other coming at Sterling Colo. against Northeastern Junior College on Sept. 23. MCC split the season series with the Plainswomen winning 3-1 at home Oct. 15.
"Coach Hannah and I have a lot of confidence in everyone on this team, now it is time for them to have confidence in the process and in each other," said Kobza.
Sophomore Victoria Thomas (Houston, Texas) led MCC with 322 kills during the regular season (2.93 per set). Freshman Fernanda Merancio (Lamar, Colo.) was second with 252, freshman Gabby Caskey (Ogallala) had 176 and Jordan Duzenack (Loveland, Colo.) had 102.
Gracen Tuttle (freshman, Ogallala) led MCC in the middle with 64 blocks, Caskey had 61, Thomas 40 and sophomore Jisell Chumacero (Eaton, Colo.) 44.
Sophomore McKenna Crews (Loveland, Colo.) had 368 digs on the year (third most in the south sub-region). Thomas and Caskey had 306 and 291 digs respectively and freshman Greta Bolognini (Bergamo, Italy) had 253.
MCC's freshmen setters Alexis Pontine (Ignacio, Colo.) and Jessie Jerome (Rawlins, Wyo.) and rank third and fourth in the south in assists per set. Pontine had 492 (7.13 per set) and Jerome 488 (6.59 per set.)
Bolognini and Caskey tied for team-best honors in service aces with 39, Crews had 35 and Jerome 34.
The team went 5-2 at neutral sites this season and finished the year going 9-2 since Sept. 27. Those two losses came to No. 4 Western Nebraska at home Oct. 12 and the match with the University of Nebraska-Kearney JVs last week.
MCC won at least two tournament games in four straight seasons (2017-21) before losing two of three matches last season at the tournament when it was held in Scottsbluff.
FINAL SOUTH STANDINGS
W-L PCT. OVERALL
Western Nebraska 10-0 1.000 29- 3
Northeastern JC 7-3 .700 18-12
McCook CC 7-3 .700 21-10
Otero JC 4-6 .400 11-25
Trinidad State JC 2-8 .200 7-22
Lamar CC 0-10 .000 1-21
FINAL NORTH STANDINGS
W-L PCT. OVERALL
Central Wyoming 10-0 1.000 20- 7
Laramie County CC 7-3 .700 16-10
Northwest College 6-4 .600 20-10
Casper College 4-6 .400 7-26
Eastern Wyoming 2-8 .200 3-21
Western Wyoming 1-9 .100 6-27
REGION IX TOURNAMENT
(At Casper, Wyo.)
WEDNESDAY'S SCHEDULE
Game 1 – McCook (21-10) vs. Laramie County (16-10), 2 p.m.
Game 2 – Northeastern JC (18-12) vs. Northwest College (20-10), 4 p.m.
Game 3 – Western Nebraska (29-3) vs. Casper (7-26), 6 p.m.
Game 4 – Otero JC (11-25) vs Central Wyoming (20-7), 8 p.m.
THURSDAY SCHEDULE
Game 5 – Game 1 loser vs. Game 3 loser, 1 p.m.
Game 6 – Game 2 loser vs. Game 4 loser, 3 p.m.
Game 7 – Game 1 winner vs Game 3 winner, 5 p.m.
Game 8 – Game 2 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 7 p.m.
FRIDAY SCHEDULE
Game 9 – Game 5 winner vs. Game 8 loser, 1 p.m.
Game 10 – Game 6 winner vs. Game 7 loser, 3 p.m.
Game 11 – Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, 5 p.m.
SATURDAY SCHEDULE
Game 12 –Game 9 winner vs. Game 10 winner, noon
Game 13 – Game 12 winner vs. Game 11 loser, 5 p.m.