The 9th-ranked Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team took on McCook Community College and No. 5 Iowa Western Community College Friday and came away with a split on the day.

            The Cougars opened the day sweeping past McCook in a South Sub-region encounter behind a 14-point kill match from Anuhea Kaohi.

            WNCC followed that up as Iowa Western had too much attacking in falling to the Reivers in three sets 25-14, 25-18, 25-20 to fall to 19-5 on the season.

            Iowa Western went 2-0 on the day as they swept past McCook in the middle game of the triangular 25-17, 25-19, 25-15.

            The Cougars started the day with an impressive win over McCook. The Cougars led from start to finish in the first set against the Indians. WNCC led 4-0 after three service points from Andrea Tsvetanova and pushed the lead to 10-5 after a Macey Boggs point. WNCC stretched the lead to 15-6 after Mariah Fukamoto had four points.

            The Cougars continued clicking on all cylinders as they led 22-10. McCook tried to make a comeback, cutting the lead to 22-13 and later 24-16, but Schaub ended the first set with a kill.

            The second set started out close. With things tied at 4-4, Angel Nahinu had a kill and then Fukamoto had five straight points for a 10-4 Cougar lead. McCook cut the lead to 21-18 but two Alex Hernandez points put things t 24-18.

            The Indians fought back to cut the lead to 24-20 but Kaohi had the ending kill for the 25-20 win.

            McCook started the third set up 2-0. WNCC came back to lead 5-2 after four Tsvetanova points including three aces. McCook tied the third set at 6-6 and later 8-8. Kaohi had a kill and Boggs had four points, including two aces and two kills from Schaub to put WNCC up 13-8.

            After McCook cut the lead to 16-13, WNCC went up 20-14 on a Karen Cordero kill. WNCC led 22-18 on a Schaub kill and led 24-19 on a Anabelle Gillen ace serve. McCook came back to cut the deficit to one, 24-23, but WNCC got the final point for the win

            The McCook match saw Kaohi and Schaub tally double figure kills. Schaub had 12 with four digs and a solo block. Kaohi had 14 with three digs. Cordero finished with seven kills, nine digs, and four points.

            Also for the Cougars, Gillen had seven digs and three points, Boggs had three digs, six points, and two aces; Hernandez had 10 digs, four kills, and five points; Tsvetanova had seven digs, 38 set assists, 10 points, and four aces; Fukamoto had six digs and nine points; and Nahinu had three kills.

            The final match of the day was a battle between two Top 10 ranked teams and the two teams battled. WNCC started the first set leading 5-2 after three Hernandez points and led 7-3 on a Cordero ace serve. Iowa Western came back to tie the set at 9-9 and went on to lead 17-10 after four service points from Lorraine Perez.

            Iowa Western led 19-12 when the Cougars tried coming back, slicing the lead to 19-14 but Iowa Western’s Leah Palensky from Papillion-Lavista South High School served five straight points to give the Reivers the 25-14 win.

            The second set was back and forth and a good battle between the two ranked teams. Iowa Western went up by three points a couple times, including 12-9. WNCC came back to grab a 15-14 lead after two Holleigh Jaime services points. WNCC led 17-16 before the Reivers went on a couple crucial service runs. First it was Iremmur Elmas with fouir points for a 21-17 lead and then Palensky served the final three points for the 25-18 win.

            Iowa Western started the third set on fire as Perez had three service points for a 3-0 lead followed by Elmas with five points for a 9-1 lead.

            WNCC wasn’t about to fold ad they battled back. Cordero got a kill and then Hernandez had three points to slice the lead to 9-5. After Iowa Western went up 14-8, the Cougars cot another kill from Cordero and Fukamoto had three points to slice the Reiver deficit to two, 14-12.

            The two teams kept trading points. Iowa Western was up 17-15 before Yadhira Anchante had four points for a 22-15 Reiver lead. WNCC came back to slice the deficit to 23-19 on two Jaime points, but Iowa Western captured the win25-20.

            WNCC’s hitting against Iowa Western wasn’t on as Cordero led the way with 11 kills followed by Kaohi with seven, Schaub and Hernandez with two each, and Elli Winkler with one.

            Cordero also had five digs and two points while Schaub had two digs.

            Also for the Cougars, Hernandez had nine digs, seven points, and three aces; Tsvetanova had six digs, three points, and 19 set assists; Jaime had seven digs, four points, and two aces; and Fukamoto had three digs and four points.

            WNCC will be back in action on Tuesday when they host Eastern Wyoming College at 7 p.m.