Hawks volleyball opens season at Southeast Tournament

BEATRICE, NE – The Northeast Community College volleyball team opened their 2018 season at the Southeast Community College Tournament here today. The Hawks started strong, sweeping Williston (ND) State College in the first match (25-14, 25-12, 25-14). In the second match, Northeast fell to North Platte Community College in five sets (23-25, 25-19, 25-21, 23-25, 13-15).

“Overall, it was a good start to our season,” said Amanda Schultze, Hawks coach. “We drove Williston out of system, which helped us execute better on our side. The girls played very well and made minimal errors. North Platte was a tough team who did a great job at keeping us on our toes and throwing us out of system. We made too many unforced errors, which, unfortunately, hurt us in the end.”

In the Williston win, Kalli Brester and Elley Beaver led the Hawks in kills with seven each; Logan Wemhoff had six. Brester, Wemhoff, Savannah Nelson and Megan Wehrbein each had two ace serves. Delaney Belt totaled 11 digs, while Nelson had 10. Nelson led assists with 27; Brester had three.

Against North Platte, Brester and Hannah Heppner recorded 11 kills each, while Wemhoff had ten. Beaver and Heppner finished with four and three blocks, respectively. Beaver also recorded three ace serves and led the Hawks in digs with 16. Nelson had 14 digs and 40 assists.

The Southeast Tournament resumes in Beatrice tomorrow, with Northeast (1-1) set to face Highland Community College at 3 p.m. and McCook Community College at 5 p.m.

Northeast volleyball struggles in final day of Southeast Tournament

BEATRICE, NE – The Northeast Community College volleyball team encountered trouble in the final day of the Southeast Tournament here Saturday. The Hawks fell to Highland Community College in four sets, winning the first 25-23 and dropping the rest (25-23, 25-14, 25-19). In the second game, Northeast fell to McCook Community College in three sets (25-20, 25-17, 25-19).

“Today was a tough day for the team,” said Amanda Schultze, Northeast coach. “Highland was a very scrappy team and picked up a lot of balls defensively. They did a nice job of keeping us out of system. We played them tough but fell short.”

Kalli Brester led Northeast in kills against Highland with 15, while Hannah Heppner had 11 kills and a team-high four blocks. Savannah Nelson and Gabi Barbosa each recorded an ace serve. Barbosa led digs with 25, while Elley Beaver totaled 17; Brester, 13; Nelson, 13; and Delaney Belt, 12. Nelson had 42 assists and Beaver had three.

Schultze said McCook, a National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division I team, also played tough against Northeast.

“They were pretty big and had some strong hitters that we couldn’t stop. We did a good job keeping the ball in play but just could not put it away offensively.”

Against McCook, Beaver, Brester, Heppner and Caitlin Orton totaled four kills each. Orton had three blocks, while Heppner and Beaver each had two. Nelson dished out three ace serves, 12 digs and 12 assists.

Northeast (1-3) will travel to West Burlington, IA, on Wednesday to face Southeastern Community College at 7 p.m.