Western Wyoming sends Lady Indians to consolation round

STERLING, Colo. – The McCook Community College volleyball team dropped a five-set match to Western Wyoming Wednesday in the opening match of the Region IX Division 1 tournament. The Mustangs won 25-20, 23-25, 13-25 25-20 and 15-11.

MCC goes to 22-12 on the season and will try and stave off elimination Thursday in a 1 p.m. contest against the loser of Wednesday night's Trinidad State-Casper match.

"Obviously this is not how we wanted to start this tournament," said MCC Coach Hayley Kobza.

After MCC cruised to a 25-13 win in the third set to take a 2-1 lead, the Lady Indians went up early in the fourth set.

"I thought if we played like we did in the third set, the match would have been done, but we let off the gas and they went full force," said MCC Coach Hayley Kobza.

Western Wyoming was able to get back in the match and force a fifth set and came on strong late in the tie-breaker to claim the Mustangs' seventh straight match win.

The team from Rock Springs, Wyo. (seeded third in the Region IX north division) moves to the semi-finals and improves to 22-12 and awaits the winner of the Trinidad State-Casper match in a 5 p.m. match Thursday. Casper was the top seed in the north and is ranked No. 17 this week and Trinidad State is the fourth seed from the south. McCook was the south's second seed.

For MCC, sophomore Greta Bolognini (Bergamo, Italy) paced the way on defense with 30 digs and added two assists. Caylin Barnett (freshman, McCook) had 12 digs.

Sophomore Jessie Jerome (Rawlins, Wyo.) had 20 assists, 11 digs, eight kills, one block and one ace. Freshman Kayten Hagan (Amherst H.S.) led the Lady Indians with 21 assists, was credited with 11 digs and two aces.

Sophomore Fernanda Merancio (Lamar, Colo.) led MCC with 14 kills in the match and three blocks. Freshman Romina Martinez (Cochabamba, Bolivia) added 11 kills, 19 digs, two blocks and one ace. Rowan Tribelhorn (Yuma, Colo.) was credited with five kills and eight assist blocks.

Sophomore middle Gabby Caskey (Ogallala) had 1o kills and eight assist blocks. Freshman April Conilogue (Longmont, Colo.) had five kills and three blocks.

"We have another match tomorrow and just need to come in and do our jobs," said Kobza.

Region IX Tournament

Nov. 1-4 at Sterling, Colo.

(Double elimination)

Wednesday Matches

Match 1 - Western Wyoming 3, McCook CC 2

Match 2 - Western Nebraska (16-16) vs. Laramie County CC (28-6), 5 p.m.

Match 3 - Trinidad State (16-17) vs. Casper College (24-11), 7 p.m.

Match 4 - Northeastern JC (30-2) vs. Central Wyoming (9-19), 9 p.m.

Thursday Schedule

Match 5 – McCook CC (22-12) vs. Loser Match 3, 1 p.m. (elimination match)

Match 6 – Loser March 2 vs. Loser Match 4, 3 p.m. (elimination match)

Match 7 – Western Wyoming (22-12) vs. Winner Match 3, 5 p.m.

Match 8 – Winner March 2 vs. Winner Match 4, 7 p.m.

Friday Schedule

Match 9 – Winner Match 5 vs. Loser Match 8, 1 p.m. (elimination match)

Match 10 - Winner Match 6 vs. Loser Match 7, 3 p.m. (elimination match)

Match 11 – Winner Match 7 vs. Winner Match 8, 5 p.m. (Championship Plains A title)

Saturday Schedule

Match 12 – Winner Match 9 vs. Winner Match 10, noon (elimination match)

Match 13 - Winner Match 12 vs. Loser Match 11, 3 p.m. (Championship Plains B title)