COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa. - The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team suffered a pair of defeats at the Reiver Classic on Saturday in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
WNCC started the tournament in falling to Iowa Western Community College in straight sets 25-21, 25-19, 25-21 and then lost a four-set match to Butler Community College 25-20, 25-15, 24-26, 25-20.
The Cougars will finish the tournament on Saturday with a pair of contests when they face Salt Lake Community College at 8 a.m. and then Hutchinson Community College at 12 noon.
Against Butler, the Cougars fought in all four sets but gave up key service runs to help Butler win the first set 25-20. The first big run came with the score tied at 13-13 and Butler scored six straight for a 19-13 lead. WNCC cut the deficit to 21-20 on a Kyana Gabriel kill, but Butler scored the final four points for the win.
The second set was the same with a couple big service runs by Butler that helped them to the 25-16 win.
The third set was a back-and-forth set. WNCC took a 10-8 lead on two service points from Allie Twamley and led 17-15 on a Jaylen Nachtigall kill. The score was tied several times including 22-22. WNCC took the lead on a kill by Keira Zelada and then Zelada had a service point for a 24-22 lead. Butler tied the set at 24, but Dani Cruz had a kill and then Eli Braithwaite got the set-winning kill.
The fourth set saw Butler jump to a 5-0 lead. WNCC came back and trailed 20-19, gut the Grizzlies had a 4-point run to lead 24-19 and took the set and match.
WNCC was led by Cruz with eight kills and nine digs while Gabriel had seven kills and three digs. Nachtigall had six kills with four digs. Twamley had 30 set assists with eight digs while Zelada had 10 digs.
Against Iowa Western, WNCC had a 12-8 lead at one time and led 19-18 in the first set. Iowa Western then went on two big service runs to take the first set 25-21. The second set saw Iowa Western get some key early service runs to lead 13-6 and went on to win 25-19.
The third set saw the Cougars jump to a 6-0 lead behind five service points from Natalia Malinowska. WNCC led 13-9 and later 19-18. That was when Iowa Western went on a couple big runs to take the match 25-21.
Gabriel and Zelada led the team with eight kills each while Cruz had five. Alex Gonzalez-Orozco had 16 digs, while Malinowska had 11 digs and 16 set assists.

WNCC women’s soccer falls to Northwest

EPHRAIM, Utah – The Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team dropped its season-opening game to Region IX foe Northwest College Friday in Ephraim, Utah.
The Cougars trailed Northwest 1-0 at intermission and then allowed four, second-half goals in falling 5-2.
WNCC will be back on the pitch on Saturday when they face Yavapai College at noon. Yavapai defeated Northwest 1-0 on Thursday. The Cougar men will face Snow College Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
Northwest scored first in the 19th minute on a goal by Brooke Travers and neither team scored the rest of the half.
The second half saw Northwest go up 3-0 as Isabella Farrell scored in the 54th minute and then Bailey Wright scored in the 65th minute.
WNCC finally got on the scoreboard when freshman Julia Santos scored in the 70th minute off an assist from Lillan Shindle to make it 3-1.
Northwest added two more goals after that when Elliasen Lewis scored in the 73rd minute and Brooke Travers scored in the 78th minute. WNCC scored with five minutes left in the game on an unassisted goal by Camilla Emanuelle de Souza.
WNCC had eight shots in the game while Northwest had 26.
WNCC goalkeeper Feline Groenwold had six saves in net.