MCC opens the season 2-0; takes down No. 19 Hutchinson

The McCook Community College volleyball team opened the season Friday taking down No. 19 Hutchinson Community College 3-1 then followed that up with a 3-0 sweep over Gillette College.

"It was a great start to our season" said MCC Coach Hayley Kobza. "We still have two really tough matches ahead of us."

MCC's wins came on the opening day of the 12-team MCC Invitational at the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center. The tournament continues at 10 a.m. Saturday as MCC plays Seward County at 2 p.m. and Barton College at 4 p.m.

"We have some things to work on that we can fix overnight it's just a matter of if the girls take the coaching and fix those things over one night sleep," said Kobza.

McCook CC 3, Hutchinson CC 1: Sophomore Fernanda Merancio (Lamar, Colo.) led MCC with 18 kills. She had one solo block and one assist block. Freshman Romina Martinez Castro (Cochabamba, Bolivia) had 15 kills, 12 digs, two assists and an ace. Caylin Barnett (freshman, Southwest High School) had 16 digs, three kills, two assist blocks, one assist and an ace.

"I thought our pins Fernanda and Romina had a fabulous match," said Kobza. "They both played very aggressive offensive volleyball."

Sophomore Gabby Caskey (Ogallala) had five kills and an ace. Gracen Tuttle (sophomore, Ogallala) had three assist blocks and freshman April Conilogue (Longmont, Colo.) had two kills and an assist block.

Jessie Jerome (sophomore Rawlins, Wyo.) led the passing attack with 33 assists, adding 15 digs, five kills, three assist blocks and two aces.

Sophomore Greta Bolognini (Bergamo, Italy) led MCC with 21 digs and added three assists. Sophomore transfer Emerie Rios (Sterling, Colo.) had nine digs and an assist.

"I saw some really good things out of Emerie Rios – we just switched her position and she played a really good match against Hutch, lots of great digs and lots of great serve receive passes," Kobza said.

McCook CC 3, Gillette College 0: McCook swept the Pronghorns 25-20, 25-18, 25-20.

Merancio led MCC with 13 kills. Castro had nine along with six digs, two assist blocks and one ace. Sophomore Jordan Duzenack (Loveland, Colo.) had six kills, one assist block and three aces.

Caskey had three kills and two assist blocks. Tuttle had a kill and an assist block. Barnett had three digs and one assist.

Kayten Hagan (Amherst, High School) had a team-high 16 assists and four digs. Jerome had 13 assists.

Bolognini led the team with 13 digs and freshman Lexie Schaefer (Fleming, Colo.) had five digs and an ace.