Aug. 31, 2006

Northeastern Junior College and North Platte were both 4-1 coming into Wednesday night's game so something had to give. Something did give as the nationally ranked Plainswomen dominated the match, winning in straight sets, 30-17, 30-26, 30-19 at Jackson/Edwards Arena in their home opener.

"The girls are really confident right now and they are playing really well," head coach Marci Henry said. "I truly believe that we are farther and more developed at this point of the season than any other season that I have coached in the eight years I have been here." NJC would have fooled anyone if they had any first-home-game jitters as they came out of the gate hard and early. Before you know it, the Plainsmen had a 10-point lead before winning by 13. In the second game of three, the high that the ladies came out with diminished a bit, giving up too many easy points down the stretch. Not discouraged, they finished strong to earn the win to put themselves one more win away from completing the sweep. "There was a little bit of miscommunication out on the court in that game," freshman libero Jenny Andresen said. "We were switching our defense from rotational to perimeter and for some reason we just had a hard time adjusting to what they were doing. But we went out there and we did what we had to do for the win."

The third game started off slow, but a time-out called by Henry to calm her players down did the trick as the crowd of 459 stood on their feet for the winning point and the sweep of the Knights from North Platte, Neb. "I feel like we work as a machine," Andresen said of her team. "It seems like everyone knows their part of the team and we all work together so well." In the match, Andresen led the team in digs with 20. Fellow freshman product from Porto Alegre, Brazil, Thais Hollerbach, added 18. Hollerbach also had 13 kills in the match to go with her digs. Freshman Addi Radke had 12 kills while Tamy Leipelt chipped in with seven. Radke also had three aces on the night.

"I like the offense right now, working with a 6-2 with two setters," said sophomore setter Stacy Manweiler, who led the team in assists with 23 Wednesday. "We are working really well as a team and everything seems to be working for us."

NJC will have a chance to relax a little bit and fine tune some of the little things they need to work on before their next match Sept. 8 when they travel to Columbus, Neb., for the Subway Invite. Western Nebraska Community College, the only team that Northeastern has a loss against, will be at the tournament, but they will not play each other in pool play. There is a chance of the two meeting up in bracket play though. First things first, NJC will begin their first match of the tournament at 10 in the morning against Eastern Wyoming College.