Yang, Vogt receive NJCAA All-Region 18 First Team honors
After suffering an opening loss to Central Florida Community College and seeing their national championship hopes disappear on Nov. 17, the Lady Cards fought back to win three consecutive games and finished ninth at the NJCAA National Tournament in West Plains, Mo.
“I’m very happy with our ninth place finish,” said head coach Kandice Kelly. “We had a brand new team that started 3-5, which shows how much we improved.”
In the ninth and 10th place game against 12th-seeded Mineral Area College of Park Hills, Mo., the NIC Lady Cards held off the Mineral Area Lady Cards in five sets posting scores of 21-25, 25-20, 20-25, 25-22 and 15-12. NIC improved its record to 5-2 in matches that lasted five sets and 25-10 overall for the season.
“Our team has this special chemistry, and when we’re on fire, we do amazing,” said sophomore outside hitter Mariah Smith.
Yang Yang, All-Region 18 First Team middle blocker, led the way with 20 kills, 16 digs and three aces, while sophomore outside hitter Janele Vogt, the other All-Region 18 First Team selection on the NIC team, added 14 kills and six blocks to the stat card. Freshman middle blocker Shelby Lausen totaled five blocks.
The Lady Cards had their sights set on 11th-seeded Temple College of Temple, Texas the previous day. The NIC squad handled Temple in four sets posting scores of 25-22, 25-19, 18-25 and 25-20.
Yang’s 14 kills and six blocks led NIC while Smith added 11 kills to go along with a team-high 10 digs. Vogt followed closely behind her teammate with 10 kills of her own, and All-Region 18 Second Team setter Sierra Pancho added 25 assists.
The Lady Cardinals defeated 15th-seeded Western Texas College earlier in the same day in a loser-out match. NIC won in straight sets with scores of 25-19, 25-15 and 26-24.
The Lady Cardinals made their presence felt again as Yang led with six blocks and 13 kills, Smith with 11 kills and 11 digs, and Sarff with 11 digs and three aces. Ewing contributed 11 kills, Lausen with five blocks and Pancho guided the offensive attack with 22 assists in the winning effort.
In the first round, 10th-seeded Central Florida upset seventh-seeded NIC in three sets. After a tight contest in the first two sets, 27-25 and 28-26, the Lady Cardinals fell to Central Florida 25-12 in the last set.
“The difference maker there is going to be no errors,” Kelly said. “Let’s make them work for their points, not give them their points.”
NIC committed 20 hitting errors in that match, the same amount NIC suffered against the College of Southern Idaho in the Region 18 championship game which NIC lost.
In the second set of the match, a scary moment occurred when Yang did the splits trying to dig a ball and her hips popped. She laid on the floor momentarily and returned to the game after sitting out a play.
Yang led her team with 10 kills and five blocks while Sarff and Smith contributed 12 digs apiece and Pancho led with 18 assists.
The top-seeded and No. 1 ranked team in the country, Blinn College of Brenham, Texas won the national championship beating third-seeded Western Wyoming Community College in four sets and completed a perfect season in the process by going 38-0.
It is the second national championship in the Blinn CC volleyball program’s history with the first one coming only three years ago in 2008.
