Plainswomen Look to Finish Regular Season Strong Despite Injuries
By: Ken McDowell
Oct. 16, 2018, Sterling, Colo. – As the 2018 regular season winds down for the Northeastern Junior College (NJC) volleyball squad, Coach Jessica Squier is finding out just how much talent she has on her bench.
The defending Region IX South champs kept their hopes alive of maintaining that title with three straight crucial league wins over the weekend, all at home in the Bank of Colorado Event Center.
On Thursday NJC hosted Lamar Community College and swept that Region IX South contest by scores of 25-19, 25-15, 25-23, avenging an earlier setback at Lamar in four games on Sept. 27.
On Friday the Plainswomen entertained Trinidad State College and won that contest in straight sets, 25-23, 25-12, 25-14, beating the Lady Trojans for the second time this season.
NJC completed the sweep Saturday over a very good Otero squad by scores of 25-17, 25-23, 25-19. NJC won at Otero in four games on Sept. 29.
The Plainswomen improve to 20-5 overall and 6-2 in Region IX South and have a solid lock on at least second place. NJC has reached the 20-win plateau for the second straight season.
Sitting ahead of NJC in first place is Western Nebraska Community College (WNCC) at 21-7 overall and 7-1 in the Region. Though Otero handed WNCC its only Region IX South loss this year in a sweep on Sept. 27, NJC fell to Western Nebraska at home in five sets on Oct. 5.
The Plainswomen have another shot at Western Nebraska on Wednesday before traveling to McCook, Neb. Community College on Tues., Oct. 23. The regular season will conclude on Wed., Oct. 24 at home against Eastern Wyoming College in a non-league match before the Region IX Tournament gets underway Thurs., Nov. 1 in Cheyenne, Wyo.
NJC is battling injuries to a couple of key players: Sophomore outside hitter Sara Antic from Serbia and sophomore middle/right side hitter Ashlyn Martinez, a former Valley Lady Viking.
Antic, a First Team All-American last year is second on the team in kills this year with 245 and Martinez has blasted 129. Antic has been hampered with a stress fracture in her shin and could be sidelined for two more weeks, Squier said.
Martinez has a sprained Achilles, and could also be on the shelf for two more weeks. A few other players are battling minor injuries and illness.
Therefore, Squier asked freshmen Ravyn Burns and Ryan Nelson, both from Aurora, to help fill the voids, and both answered the call in the three matches.
Burns had nine kills in the win over Lamar, nine against Trinidad and 8 against Otero. Nelson also had four big blocks in the Otero match.
NJC also received outstanding leadership from First Team All-American setter Sofija Pajevic from Serbia along with sophomore outside hitter Kacey Jaeger from Ogallala, Neb. Jaeger entered Thursday's match with 260 kills to lead NJC in that department.
Jaeger had 13 kills in the Saturday sweep over the Lady Rattlers of Otero, along with 17 in the win over Lamar and added seven in the victory over Trinidad Friday.
Not to be outdone, freshman Julia Gutierrez Mas from Barcelona, Spain had another big weekend with 22 total kills, including seven in the win over Otero. She now has 154 kills on the season to help solidify the NJC attack.
"I'm very proud of the team effort," Squier said. "We were missing some key starters and all year we have been trying to get the girls to buy into that when someone is injured or struggling they step up and do something.
"We had to make little adjustments to get the job done as a team. A lot of teams that miss two key starters will think they will lose, but our girls came out and thought 'why not us'? no matter who is out there."
Squier observed that some of the freshmen were struggling to reach the level of the sophomores, but added, "This week they showed they are capable of doing the job in different ways than the sophomores.
"Their intensity has shown more this weekend and so has their ability to keep their composure and I think that will help us down the stretch."
Otero entered Saturday's match against the Plainswomen with a 21-4 overall mark and 4-3 in Region IX South and ranked as high as 19th in the nation with NJC close behind.
The Plainswomen got off to a fast start in the first set Saturday, taking a 9-4 lead with strong play at the net from Pajevic and freshman Taylor Burns of Aurora, who has 97 kills on the season and once again stepped up huge.
A kill from Ravyn Burns upped NJC's lead to 20-11 and the first set ended on a kill from Gutierrez Mas.
The Plainswomen took that momentum right into the second set, building a 12-5 lead behind the attack of Jaeger who had three straight kills in that span and Gutierrez Mas adding a couple.
But Otero quickly changed the momentum by scoring eight straight points to lead for the first time all day before a Pajevic kill knotted the score at 13-13.
Both teams traded the lead and when Otero had a 20-19 advantage, a pair of kills by Ravyn Burns and one by Nelson gave NJC a 24-23 edge. Taylor Burns smashed another kill to give NJC with 25-23 victory and the 2-0 lead going into what proved to be the third and final set.
The Plainswomen had to battle from an early 5-3 deficit and took the lead for good on a Jaeger kill. NJC increased the margin to 21-16 and never looked back to complete the sweep with the 25-19 victory.
Defense also played a big role in NJC's success as freshman Kinley Coe of Colorado Springs had 16 digs against Otero, 18 against Trinidad on Friday and 16 against Lamar on Thursday.
Gutierrez Mas also had 16 digs against Otero, 13 against Trinidad and 13 against Lamar.
Squier admitted she is not looking at tiebreaker situations to determine the Region IX South title as her team heads to Scottsbluff, Neb. Wednesday for the re-match against Western Nebraska, but rather the contest itself.
"Until all of the matches are done, I don't pay attention to things like that," she said. "I just look at one match at a time and that's the way I've always been as a coach.
"We just have to go into Wednesday's match focusing on the team. If we can control ourselves then we can control the other teams. If we let the other teams control us then we are not focusing on us as a team.
"We will continue to battle and try to figure out how to make ourselves better."