MCC volleyball team splits first two on Texas trip

GAINSVILLE, Texas – The McCook Community College volleyball team travelled to Texas for their first road games Friday and split a pair of matches in the North Central College Tournament. The Lady Indians downed Wharton County Community College 3-2 then lost to No. 13 Blinn College 3-0.

“We started off pretty slow in the day by making a lot of errors. After we warmed up, we came back with the reverse sweep against Wharton,” said MCC Coach Hayley Kobza. “Our match against Blinn was tough.”

Blinn improves to 11-2 on the season with their losses to No. 2 Miami Dade College and to No. 10 New Mexico Junior College. The Bucaneers also posted wins over No. 8 Odessa and No. 14 Daytona State.

“We are coming back tomorrow ready to play,” said Kobza.

MCC goes to 8-2 on the year.

On Saturday the Lady Indians take on the host school North Central Texas College (3-9) at 9 a.m. followed at 11 a.m. against Dallas College-Brookhaven (4-7).

Up-to-date information about MCC volleyball including livestream links, schedule, statistics, rosters, photos and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com

McCOOK CC 3 – WHARTON COUNTY JC 2: The Lady Indians got off to a slow start in the opening match, dropping the first two sets to the Pioneers 14-24, 20-25. MCC got on track to win the next three sets 25-16, 25-17, 15-6.

Wharton County fell to 1-2 on the season.

A trio of sophomores paced the MCC attack. Caylin Barnett (McCook) led the attack with 14 kills and added 14 digs and a block. Romina Martinez Castro (sophomore, Cochabamba, Bolivia) added 11 kills, five digs, two blocks and two aces. Rowan Tribelhorn (Yuma, Colo.) was credited with nine kills and six assist blocks.

Freshman Charlee Russick (Berthoud, Colo.) had seven kills and two digs. Audrey Holm (freshman, Paxton) pitched in five kills, three aces and two blocks. Freshman Ailynn Wright (Sterling, Colo.) had four digs, four aces and two kills.

Cibeles Bothwell (sophomore, Spring, Texas), had nine digs and two aces.

Freshman Abby Thompson (Bison, S.D.) had 19 assists, two blocks and a kill and Megan Walker (Haxtun, Colo.) had 15 assists and one ace.

BLINN COLLEGE 3, McCOOK CC 0: The No. 11 Buccaneers improved to 11-2 with the sweep over the Lady Indians 25-18, 25-10, 25-19.

“They are a great team and we just couldn't lock down on defense,” said Kobza.

Romi Martinez led MCC with six kills and seven digs along with a block. Caylin Barnett had five kills, two aces and one block. Charlee Russick was credited with five kills and a block. Audrey Holm had four kills, three assist blocks and a solo block and one ace.

Rowan Tribelhorn was in the scorebook for two kills and two blocks as was Ailynn Wright.

Abby Thompson had 24 assists to lead the team along with a serving ace.