The Western Nebraska Community College volleyball team moved into sole second-place in the Region IX South conference standings after taking two games from Trinidad State College on Friday and then Otero College on Saturday on the road.

                On Friday, WNCC had three players with double figure kills led by Kyana Gabriel with 13 kills in posting the 5-set win. The scores were 17-25, 25-21, 12-25, 25-21, 15-13.

                WNCC followed that up with a 4-set win over Otero in capturing the 25-20, 17-25, 25-17, 25-16 win.

                WNCC will look to stay in second place in the standings when they host two conference games this week. North Platte Community College comes to Cougar Palace on Tuesday for a 6 p.m. contest. Then Southeast Community College visits Cougar Palace on Saturday for a 2 p.m. contest.

                Friday's match was a barn-burner which was played at Trinidad State College's tough gymnasium. WNCC captured the fourth set to force a fifth game. In the fifth, Trinidad took a 4-2 lead and led 8-6. WNCC came back and made it 8-7 on a point by Alex Gonzalez-Orozco.

                WNCC tied the game at 10-10 after two points from Natalia Nowak. Trinidad led 13-10 when the Cougars got the serve back on a missed serve. Dani Cruz followed suit as she served four straight points to give the Cougars the 15-13 win.

                WNCC was led by Gabriel and Cruz with double-doubles. Gabriel had 13 kills and 14 digs while Cruz had 11 kills and 10 digs. Keira Zelada pounded down 10 kills while Nadiyyah Northern had five kills. Emma Hergenreder finished with 13 digs, two kills, and two assists, while Gonzalez-Orozco had 20 digs with five set assists. Nowak had 25 set assists with seven digs while Allie Twamley had eight set assists and 10 digs and three solo blocks.

                In the win over Otero, WNCC hit .291 for the game with 53 kills while Otero hit .189 with 39 kills. WNCC had a balanced hitting attack with five players with eight or more kills. No one player had double-figure kills. Zelada and Maria Niedzwiecka led the team with nine kills each. Zelada also had three digs while Niedzwiecka had five aces. Cruz, Northern, and Gabriel all had eight kills, while Eli Braithwaite had four kills.

                Also for the Cougars, Gonzalez-Orozco had 22 digs and two aces; Cruz had 13 digs; Gabriel had 11 digs; Nowak had 33 set assists with seven digs; Twamley had 11 set assists with three kills; and Hergenreder had four digs and two kills.