Oct. 26, 2006

By Anthony Arroyo Journal-Advocate sports reporter

STERLING - With more than 1,000 people watching the NJC Plainswomen attempt to take down the No. 1 team in the nation, Western Nebraska Community College had something else in mind.

WNCC came into town and completed the three game sweep, 30-22, 30-27, 30-28 at the Jackson & Edwards Arena Wednesday night.

"We made a lot of silly errors toward the end of games," head coach Marci Henry said after the tough loss. "There was an instance where the game was tied and we served it out of bounds, or even another time during game two where we had defensive players out of position. These are simple things, and we can't afford to do that against a team like this."

Western Nebraska started every game with some sort of lead that the Plainswomen had to overcome during the contest. During game one, the Cougars had leads such as 4-1, 7-4 and 12-8 - leads that NJC would put a dent into, but could never quite overcome.

Game two, Northeastern knew what they had to do, but saying it and doing it were totally two different things. Once again the Cougars jumped out to a little lead, before NJC was able to tie things up at 13, before taking their first lead of the match 14-13. From that point, both teams would trade off a bunch of points before WNCC pulled away toward the end on a 6-3 scoring drive to take the 2-0 lead.

"We pretty much beat ourselves," Freshman Addi Radke said. "We just made too many mistakes to try to overcome which made it tough for us to find our comfort zone."

After the 10-minute intermission, the ladies raised the level of intensity, taking the lead early and maintaining it through out the game until the Cougars battled back, down as much as seven point to tie things up at 26. Western Nebraska outscored Northeastern 4-2 to complete the three-game win and raise their impressive record to 50-1. NJC fell to 34-7.

"It seemed like as soon as we got to 25, we just let down," Radke said. "I don't know if we relaxed too much or just choked, but we definitely lost focus all of a sudden."

Assistant Coach Robby Haley said, "Western Nebraska is a great team. They outplayed us. Good teams have a way of finishing when they need to and that's what they did."

Radke led the Plainswomen with 12 kills while Tamy Leipelt chipped in 9.

Thais Hollerbach contributed six kills and 11 digs while Jenny Andresen added a game-high 12 digs.

Operation: White out was a huge success, and the coaching staff gives great thanks to the community members who continue to support the NJC sports program year in and year out.

"The fans were great," Henry said. "It was by far the best playing atmosphere that we have had all season long. We are grateful and appreciative of the people in the community that made the game, I just wish we could have come out with one win in the deal."

NJC will have their chance again in the regional tournament which will begin Nov. 9, in Scottsbluff, Neb., but until then, the Plainswomen look to finish the regular season on a good note and finish with a win against Eastern Wyoming College Nov. 1.

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