North Platte – The North Platte Community College Lady Knights volleyball team will travel to Sterling, Colo., to participate in the Pizza Hut Invite at the Bank of Colorado Events Center in Sterling, Colo., on Friday September 15.

The Lady Knights will begin their portion of the invite with a match against the Williston State College Lady Tetons from North Dakota at 3 PM.

Williston is 5-7 on the season. They have won four of their last six matches. The Lady Tetons are led by Katie Nice with 111 kills. Brittany Hawman has 182 defensive digs and Anna Zuniga has 312 set assists.

At 5 PM, the Lady Knights will face the host team Northeastern Junior College Plainswomen. The Plainswomen defeated the Lady Knights in North Platte, three sets to one on August 30.

The Plainswomen are 4-2 on the season. Sara Antic has 59 kills and Noel Phillips has 54 kills to lead the Plainswomen. Bailey Schumacher leads the team with 53 defensive digs and Sofjia Pajevic has 154 set assists.

The Lady Knights are 8-10 on the season. Luisa Hernandez has 182 kills and 227 defensive digs to lead the Lady Knights. Carlie Wytulka has 427 set assists and Taylin McNair has 162 set assists for the Lady Knights .

The next home action for the Lady Knights is on Thursday, September 21 when they host the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II number three rated Central Community College. The game is “Girl Scout Night” All girl scouts , scout leaders and their families will be admitted free.

Beatrice – The North Platte Community College Lady Knights Volleyball team defeated the Southeast Community College Lady Storm Wednesday night at the Truman Center 25-22, 18-25, 25-21, and 25-20 in an important National Junior College Athletic Association Region IX Division II match.

Lady Knight Head Coach Alexa McCall said “It’s a good Region win for us. We still have to clean up our serve and serve receive but I thought we worked hard at the end to give ourselves the win.”

The win improved the Lady Knights record to 8-10 on the season, 1-0 in Region IX Division II play, and 2-0 in the Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference.

Luisa Hernandez, who had 18 kills on the evening and 19 defensive digs, led the Lady Knights. Taylin McNair added 22 set assists and 15 defensive digs. Antonya Schaffert had 13 defensive digs.

The Lady Knights travel on Friday to Sterling Colo., to participate in the Pizza Hut Invitational. They will play Williston State College at 3 pm and Northeastern Junior College, the host at 5 pm.

They will return home on September 21, to play number three Central Community College. The game is designated as “Girl Scout Night” and “Educators Night” All scouts, scout leaders, as well as educators, will be admitted free into the game.

McCook – The North Platte Community College Lady Knights team split a pair of games against Division One opponents McCook Community College and Laramie County Community College on Tuesday night.

In the first match, the Lady Knights defeated the Lady Indians of McCook Community College in four sets, 23-25, 26-24, 25-17, and 25-10.

“I’m really glad to get a win against McCook. I thought we started out sloppy but really turned around and cleaned things up.” Lady Knight Head Coach Alexa McCall said, “We talk a lot about our serving and passing and I think they were ok tonight but we still need to be more consistent from both of those areas.”

Luisa Hernandez had 15 kills and 20 defensive digs for the Lady Knights. Amanda Kroeger had 10 kills Neci Sundquist finished with nine kills, Taylin McNair and Carlie Wytulka each had 18 set assists in the match. Wytulka also had 17 service points with two service aces. Shaylee Johnson also had two service aces.

In the second match for the Lady Knights in the triangular, the Lady Knights were defeated by the Laramie County Community College Lady Golden Eagles in four sets, 17-26, 16-25, 25-19, and 19-25.

McCall said, “We played a good LCCC team and thought we battled pretty hard for the most part. I just wish we could have taken them to five.”

Hernandez had 10 kills for the Lady Knights. Kroeger finished with nine kills in the match. McNair had 22 set assists and Antonya Schaffert had 10 defensive digs.

The Lady Knights are 7-10 on the season and 1-0 in Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference.

The Lady Knights travel to Beatrice on Wednesday, September 13 to play the Southeast Community College Lady Storm in a Region IX Division II contest. Game time is at 6 pm.

The U10 Girls North Platte United Wildthings 08 have had an outstanding Summer season. They took first place at three tournaments (one of which was the top division in Gretna) they made it to the semifinals in two tournaments and went undefeated at the Elkhorn Hive Friendlies and finished the season with a total of 115 goals, and only allowed 21 goals. The girls ended the summer with a record of 19-3

The best is yet to come.

That’s how Garrett Nokes, MPCC Rodeo Team timed event coach, feels about the team’s performance at the Falcon Frontier Days Rodeo in River Falls, Wis. over the weekend.

It was the first competition of the 2017-18 season, and the results weren’t quite what everyone had hoped for.

“All in all, we’ve had worse rodeos, but I know the competitive nature of our team members, and I know they are not happy,” said Nokes. “We had a couple of bad draws and a couple instances where we thought our horses were ready, but they weren’t.”

The mental aspect of competing also played a part.

“Some of the mistakes by our upperclassmen were made because they were trying too hard,” said Nokes. “They wanted to go in there, make stuff happen and defend our title, when in reality, they needed to relax a little and have more fun. No doubt this weekend will be better.”

The results of the rodeo were as follows:

• Steer wrestling – Tyler Murray, of McCook, second
• Team roping – Reed Murray, of Belvue, Kan., and Lane Kennedy, of Orleans, third; Seth Pearson, of Oconto, and South Dakota State University’s Reis Bruley, fourth; Kaile Jacobson, of Hershey, and Trenton Solida, of Phillipsburg, Kan., fifth
• Breakaway Roping – Maura Christen, of Elwood, fifth
• Men’s Team – fifth
• Women’s Team – fourth

“I look for big things from Tyler this year,” said Nokes. “He did an outstanding job and really showed his maturity in Wisconsin. Injuries plagued him in the past, but he has been 100 percent for just shy of a year now. That has made a huge difference in his aggression level and confidence.”

Seven MPCC team ropers made it to the short go at River Falls – four of whom were freshmen. MPCC was also represented in the short round in breakaway.

“We had some freshmen in the team roping who really stepped up,” said Nokes. “Reed Murray, Tyler’s cousin, is a freshman this year. He roped alongside Lane Kennedy, who rode saddle broncs for us at nationals last summer. Lane got his hand caught in the dally – otherwise they probably would have won either first or second.”

The team will have a chance to move up in the standings as it competes at its hometown rodeo, the MPCC Stampede, Friday and Saturday at the Wild West Arena in North Platte. Performances will start at 7 p.m. each night. Admission is payable at the gate. It’s $10 for adults and free for children 10 and younger.

McCook – The North Platte Community College Lady Knights volleyball team finished 2-2 at the Sports Shoppe Invitational.

In the first match on Friday, the Lady Knights avenged an earlier loss, defeating the Highland Community College Scotties in four sets 21-25, 25-20, 26-24, and 25-18.

Lady Knight Head Coach Alexa McCall said, “We played a great game against Highland and really attacked them. I thought we served and passed really well.”

Luisa Hernandez, Neci Sundquist, Amanda Kroeger, and Aly Camacho each had nine kills for the Lady Knights. Camacho had seven total blocks, Hernandez had 23 defensive digs, Taylin McNair 26 set assists to lead the Lady Knights.

In the second match on Friday, the Lady Knights were defeated by the Butler County Community College Lady Grizzlies in straight sets, 21-25, 21-25, and 19-25.

McCall said, “Against Butler we saw some good things but were just inconsistent.”

Hernandez led the Lady Knights in kills with 10 and 12 defensive digs. McNair had 20 set assists, Camacho had five total blocks.

“We will have some good opportunities tomorrow and we have to advantage and work hard.” McCall said.

In the first match on Saturday, the Lady Knights started out well but fell to the 16th ranked Cowley County Community College Lady Tigers in four sets 23-25, 25-21, 25-16, and 25-20.

Lady Knight Head Coach Alexa McCall said, “We had some really good moments against a good Cowley team, just pretty inconsistent.”

Luisa Hernandez had 12 kills and Neci Sundquist added 10 kills to lead the attack for the Lady Knights. Taylin McNair had 17 defensive digs and 17 set assists for the Lady Knights.

Lady Knights finished their portion of the tournament with a five set victory over Neosho County Community College16-25, 25-20, 25-22, 24-26, and 15-10.

“I’m glad we came out with a win against Neosho. It helped our mental toughness and we really used momentum to our advantage and took them out of their game.” McCall said. “We talked about serving aggressive and moving passers and really did a good job.”

Hernandez finished the match with 19 kills and 22 defensive digs to pace the Lady Knights. McNair had 21 set assists and Carlie Wytulka added 12 set assists.

The Lady Knights finish the Invitational at 2-2 and are now 6-9 on the season.

The Lady Knights return to McCook on Tuesday, September 12 for a triangular against McCook Community College and Laramie County Community College.

The matches will be live streamed at www.mccindians.com.