MCC Volleyball drops pair of games at Norfolk tournament

NORFOLK – The McCook Community College volleyball team lost twice Friday on the opening day of the Norfolk Marriott Invitational.

"We are doing more good than bad, but we need to stop competing against teams and make them compete with us," said MCC Coach Hayley Kobza.

Cloud County Community College downed MCC in the opener 3-2 and Northeast Community College took a 3-1 win.

"We have strong players and sophomores that want to win, now they need to figure out how to make that happen," Kobza said.

MCC falls to 2-4 and will continue in the Norfolk tournament Saturday with a 9 a.m. match with Western Iowa Technical College and at 11 a.m. against Mount Marty JVs.

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

Cloud County CC 3, McCook CC 2: The Thunderbirds won 23-25, 25-17, 25-18, 16-25, 15-10.

Sophomore Fernanda Merancio (Lamar, Colo.) led the MCC attack with 17 kills and two assist blocks. Romina Martinez Castro (freshman, Cochabamba, Bolivia) had 14 kills, 17 digs, three assist blocks and an ace.

Gabby Caskey (sophomore Ogallala) had 11 kills and seven assist blocks. Freshman Rowan Tribelhorn (Yuma, Colo.) recorded 10 kills and two assist blocks.

Sophomore Greta Bolognini (Bergamo, Italy) led MCC on defense with 21 digs. Caylin Barnett (freshman, McCook) added 14. Sophomore transfer Emerie Rios (Sterling, Colo.) had four.

Sophomore Jessie Jerome (Rawlins, Wyo.) had 21 assists, 12 digs, three kills and four assist blocks.

Northeast CC 3, McCook CC 1: The hosts won the first two sets 25-22 and 25-21 before MCC came up a 25-23 winner in the third set. The Hawks closed out the match in the fourth set with a 25-22 win to improve to 6-1 on the season.

Castro led MCC with 14 kills to go along with 13 digs. Merancio was credited with 13 kills and two assist blocks. Tribelhorn had seven kills and one assist block. Sophomore Jordan Duzenack (Loveland, Colo.) added four kills.

Caskey had seven kills and five assist blocks. Freshman April Conilogue (Longmont, Colo.) added five assist blocks in the middle and four kills.

Jerome led the passing attack with 39 assists to go along with 17 digs and seven assist blocks.

Bolognini was credited with 25 digs, eight assists and one ace. Barnett had 10 digs and three aces. Rios added nine digs.