Oct. 10, 2007

By Ken McDowell Sports Editor

About all Northeastern Junior College (NJC) Coach Marci Henry could say about Tuesday's South sub-region volleyball match at Western Nebraska Community College (WNCC) is that the Lady Cougars are a "very good team."

Last year NJC went into Scottsbluff during the regular season and took WNCC to 5 games before dropping a hard-fought match. On Tuesday NJC lost to the number 1 team in the nation in 3 sets, 24-30, 23-30, 20-30. NJC stands at 33-10 while WNCC moves to 33-1.

Henry did see some improvement in her team from the previous two meetings this year against WNCC. "We competed better," she said. "But they are strong in a lot of areas. "They receive the ball well, and they play strong defense. They also run a very fast offense and it was hard for us to keep up with the block." NJC got into a deep hole in game 1 when WNCC reeled off 6 straight points.

"It wasn't that their server aced us," Henry noted, "but we didn't pass well plus we had 4 hitting errors. You just can't let a team like Western Nebraska get on a roll like that." Henry did point out that her team did pretty well in serve receive. In a recent match with Eastern Wyoming College, WNCC served up 26 aces. Against NJC the Lady Cougars recorded only 5 aces.

"This is definitely a better Western Nebraska team than the one that finished second in the nation last year," Henry pointed out.

Sophomore Addi Radke led NJC in kills with 10, sophomores Thais Hollerbach, Jessica Tjaden and Tamy Leipelt had 6 each and freshman Alexis Eliades 4. Tjaden also had 21 assists to go along with her 6 kills. Freshman Suyan Leipelt led in digs with 12, Hollerbach 8 and Tjaden 6. Hollerbach also served up 2 aces and Eliades had a pair of blocks. NJC reeled off three straight South Sub-Region wins last week at home to improve to 4-0 in the conference.

On Thursday NJC faced a scrappy Otero Junior College team and won in 4 games, 30-21, 25-30, 30-21, 30-21. Radke and Tamy Leipelt each had 19 kills and Hollerbach 14. Tjaden had 47 assists and Hollerbach had 15 digs. Eliades and Radke also had 9 digs each and Suyan Leipelt 8.

It was right back at it Friday as the Plainswomen hosted Trinidad State College and swept the match by scores of 30-21, 30-20, 30-16. Tamy Leipelt had 8 kills and 7 each for Tjaden and Radke. Tjaden had 25 assists Radke and Hollerbach 8 digs each.

In a Saturday matinee match Saturday, NJC wrapped up the South Sub-Region sweep with a straight set win over Lamar Community College, 30-11, 30-20, 30-19. Tamy Leipelt led in kills with 13, Suyan Leipelt 10 and Radke and freshman Kristin Gardiner 8 each. Tjaden had 43 assists, Hollerbach 10 digs and Radke 9.

NJC stands at 4-1 in the South Sub-Region, and is ranked 17th in the nation this week.

NJC will compete in the Seward County, Kan. Invitational Friday and Saturday before returning home Monday at 7 p.m. to take on McCook, Neb. Community College.