Oct. 24, 2007

By Anthony Arroyo Journal-Advocate sports reporter

STERLING -- The Plainswomen volleyball team from Northeastern Junior College is holding their annual, "Operation: White Out" tonight when ranked No. 5 Western Nebraska Community College enter the Bank of Colorado Event Center.

Northeastern is ranked No 16 in the nation with their 39-11 record this season. The team is winners in 12 of their last 15 matches and are currently 5-0 on their recent Region IX stretch.

Last week, the team did a lot of traveling, first going up North to face North Platte Community College, then going all the way down South to face Trinidad State Junior College on back to back nights. NJC took care of business to begin their string of games with a 30-23, 30-27, 30-28 victory against North Platte. Sophomore Addi Radke didn't seem like she could be stopped, going for a game-high 16 kills. She would also add seven digs and five total blocks. Sophomore Tamy Leipelt had eight kills, with her sister freshman Suyan Leipelt following closely with seven of her own. Defensively, sophomore Thais Hollerbach had 16 digs to lead the way.

"North Platte is a really good team and I felt that we played very well," Northeastern head volleyball coach Marci Henry said. "They challenged us and it was a good match to play heading to our South trip." The team would then travel South for their first match against Trinidad and won with no problem, 30-14, 30-18, 30-18. In that match, Radke blew up for 21 kills, leading all attackers. Tamy Leipelt added 11 kills in the contest. Suyan Leipelt led the way with 15 digs defensively. As a team, they tallied 13 aces, led by Tamy with five. NJC would travel again the following day, but the distance was much smaller. They would take on Otero Junior College and, once again, picked up another three game sweep. This time, they would win 30-14, 30-18, 32-30. Peetz native Kristin Gardiner, playing for the injured Hollerbach, who injured her wrist in play with North Platte, stepped in and played in on of her best game this season. The freshman stepped up for nine kills and two blocks on the day.

Tamy Leipelt led the way against Otero offensively, pounding 15 kills across on 28 attempts. Radke had 11 kills, while sophomore Jessica Tjaden added six kills, to go along with her 37 assists. "We had one of those times where you would rather not have the intermission happen because we were like a machine in the first two games," Henry said. "After the break, we struggled on serve-receive and didn't pass well." Saturday afternoon, the team finished the trip with a good showing at Lamar Community College, earning a 30-19, 30-26, 30-16 victory.

Radke led again with 16 kills, followed by Tamy Leipelt with 12 and Tjaden with seven. Gardiner finished with six. Sophomore Brittany Palmer, along with Tjaden had four aces each. The team finished with 15 all together. There wasn't much the team needed to do defensively, but Tamy led the way with nine on the day. Radke had eight. "We were able to comeback from a deficit in that second game and beat a decent college team, which was good to see," Henry said.

The stage has been set, a match up with Western Nebraska and Northeastern will take place today at 7 p.m. at the Bank of Colorado Event Center. Unofficially, the Lady Cougars have a nine-match winning streak against NJC and they will look to change that tonight.

"We're pumped," Gardiner said of the match. Operation: White Out offers $2 off for adults and allowing kids to enter free with a paying adult who all wear white. All those wearing pink to support the fight of breast cancer will also receive those benefits.