Oct. 23, 2006

By Anthony Arroyo Journal-Advocate sports reporter Friday, October 20, 2006 3:14 PM MDT

STERLING - It was a long night for the inexperienced junior college out of La Junta Thursday night.

The Plainswomen won in easy fashion against the Otero Rattlers, coming through with the three-game sweep, 30-17, 30-17, 30-10 to improve their impressive record to 33-6 on the year.

"We came out and executed pretty well tonight," assistant coach Robby Haley said after his team's triumph. "We had much better intensity and our focus was a little better than it was in our last couple matches on the road."

Before Thursday's contest, NJC had just completed a five-game road trip where they went 4-1 during that stretch. The team began trip with a heartbreaking defeat to Western Nebraska Community College in five games, but bounced back and won four straight heading into the Otero match.

The poor Lady Rattlers really had no chance against a focused Plainswomen team. The first game, the team looked out of place down by as much as 15 points at one point before losing 30-17.

The second game was just about the same for Otero as they had no answer for Northeastern's outside hitters. It also help when freshman Jenny Andresen stepped up and served up nine points in the game to take game two going into the 10-minute intermission.

"We were playing a team that has good potential, but wasn't quite to our level" Andresen said, who finished the game with three aces and 16 total service points. "It was hard for us to get pumped and excited because of that reason, but we all played well and our chemistry was good through out the whole match."

The Plainswomen came out for the third game, and finished the game in less than 20 minutes to take the match easily by 20 points.

Overall, freshman Thais Hollerbach had another standout performance, recording a double-double with 14 kills and 10 digs. Fellow freshman Tammy Leipelt also came through with double digits numbers - 10 kills and 10 digs.

"We have been working really hard and it shows in this game," Leipelt said, who also had a game-high five aces in the match. "We played really well."

Freshman Addi Radke added eight kills and 10 digs to the balance attack from NJC. Setters Brittany Palmer and Stacy Manweiler had had 17 and 16 assists respectably while freshman Isabela Lachowski led all defenders with six blocks up front.

After this game, the team inches that much closer to the rematch against Western Nebraska.

"We need to do the same thing that we did tonight for that game," Leipelt said. "I think we could win that game if we play well."

First things first, the Plainswomen need to pass by McCook Community College first on Oct. 23.

Anthony Arroyo can be reached at 522-1990, Ext. 232 or by e-mail: aarroyo@journal-advocate.com