MCC Volleyball earns rare home win over Cougars
Oct 20, 2026 / MCC Athletics/Brent Cobb
For the first time in more than 32 years, the McCook Community College volleyball team claimed a win on their hone court against Western Nebraska Community College. It took five sets, but the Lady Indians pulled out a 25-23, 14-25, 26-24, 26-28, 15-12 win Tuesday night in the Peter and Dolores Graff Events Center.
“I told the girls that at the end of the day we did come out on top, but we also have a list of things we need to work on,” said MCC Coach Hayley Kobza.
Tuesday was only the third win for MCC in the past 71 games against Western Nebraska going back to 1994. From that win in Scottsbluff, the Cougars won 48 straight matches until the 2019 MCC team won on Halloween Night. After losing its next seven matches against WNCC, MCC scored a 3-1 win in Scottsbluff on Oct. 14, 2023. There are no archives available to track when MCC last beat Western Nebraska at home.
More importantly, the win changes the post-season outlook for MCC and sends the Lady Indians in a positive direction for post-season seeding.
“This is a big win and depending on what else happens this could bump us up to No. 2 in the standings,” said Kobza.
Western Nebraska, now 9-2 (18-13 overall) and in second place in the Region IX South has just a half-game lead over MCC who improves to 9-3 and 16-13 overall.
In other Region IX South play, it was No. 13 Northeastern Junior College winning at North Platte 3-1, as the fourth-place Knights still have eyes on the post-season as well.
On Tuesday night at home, MCC and Western Nebraska set the tone early and played a tightly contested first set with eight tie scores and four lead changes before the Lady Indians pulled out a 25-23 win.
Despite the momentum Western Nebraska began the second set scoring 11 of the first 12 points on the way to the 25-14 set loss.
“If anybody was here and watched the second set, that was a bad showing of MCC Volleyball and then we came back a couple times and played well in stretches,” said Kobza.
The third set was again a lot of back-and-fort with the score tied six times and four lead changes. MCC got down 8-12 and 10-15 before responding and took a 19-18 lead on the strength of a Zoe Mulholland serving run and the Lady Indians held on for a 26-24 win
This time it appeared MCC had completely seized momentum and started the fourth set leading 8-0 win Tanna Bailey leading the way from the service line to start the set.
“After getting up big like that, we just didn’t take care of business. We just kind of settled,” said Kobza.
The Lady Indians led 12-3 but Western Nebraska went on 9-1 to get back in the set and eventually coming all the way back, taking the first lead of the set on an overturned video review challenge at 27-26, then scored the final point to tie the match at 2-2.
The score was tied 6-6 in the fifth set when freshman Relebohile Phamotse (Maseru, Lesotho) had two consecutive service aces to put MCC up 8-6. The Lady Indians stretched the lead to 11-7 on a Tanna Bailey kill. Western got the set to 11-10 but after an MCC timeout, the Tribe outscored the Cougars 4-2 to take the match.
Phamotse fueled the hitting attack Tuesday with a team-high 17 kills, three blocks, three digs and two fifth-set service aces. Jade Powell (freshman, Sterling, Colo.) had a double-double with 12 kills, a team-high18 digs and two aces.
MCC had 50 kills for the match to 47 for WNCC.
Sophomores Shana Muller (Gretz-Armainvilliers, France) and Leia Young (Amarillo, Texas) both added seven kills. Young added three solo blocks and three block assists.
“I am excited really to see some of the other players stepping up,” said Kobza. “I’m excited to see Leia Young back after her injury.”
Sophomore Bobbi Starkebaum (Haxtun, Colo.) had four kills, two solo blocks and five block assists. Freshman Tanna Bailey (Stoneham, Colo.) had three kills along with 11 digs and a team-best three service aces.
Sophomore Zoe Mulholland (Lander, Wyo.) had 24 assists, 11 digs and two aces. Freshman Cheyanne Ortiz (Pueblo, Colo.) had 22 assists and nine digs.
Freshman Paula Urizar (Guatemala City, Guatemala) had 12 digs, sophomore Anna Richardson (Worland, Wyo.) five digs and sophomore Kamryn Slaugh (Manila Utah) had four.
MCC will travel to Sterling Colo. Friday to take on NJC (11-0, 22-6) then close out the regular season Oct. 28 at home against North Platte (6-6, 12-13).
Western Nebraska will host North Platte Thursday and Southeast CC Friday, then face first place NJC Oct. 28.
NJC’s path to an unbeaten conference includes Friday’s match with MCC in Sterling, Colo., a Saturday game at home against Southeast CC and the Oct. 28 match against Western
Nebraska.
The Lady Indians have a two-and-a-half-game cushion over fourth place North Platte and Trinidad State. North Platte will play Thursday at Scottsbluff against Western Nebraska and finish at McCook Oct. 38. Trinidad State can improve to 8-6 in the standings with wins at Lamar Saturday and at home against Otero Oct. 30.
In the Region IX North division Casper leads the six-team field at 7-0, Central Wyoming is second at 4-3, Gillette College is third at 3-4, Eastern Wyoming fourth at 3-3, Northwest, fifth at 2-5 and Laramie County is sixth at 1-5.
The Region IX tournament is set to begin Nov. 4 in Casper, Wyo. with the Region IX North’s top four teams facing the top four teams from Region IX South with the conferences’ top two seeds facing third and four seeded teams in first round action.
REGION IX SOUTH STANDINGS
Northeastern JC 11-0 1.000 22-6
Western Nebraska 9-2 .818 18-13
McCook CC 9-3 .750 16-13
Trinidad State 6-6 .500 11-17
North Platte CC 6-6 .500 12-13
Lamar CC 3-8 .273 5-13
Otero College 2-10 .167 5-17
Southeast CC 0-11 .000 4-21
TUESDAY RESULTS
McCook 3, Western Nebraska 2
Northeastern JC 3, North Platte 1
REMAINING SCHEDULE
OCT. 22
North Platte at Western Nebraska
Lamar at Otero
OCT. 23
MCC at Northeastern JC
Southeast CC at Western Nebraska
OCT. 24
Southeast CC at Northeastern JC
Trinidad State at Lamar
OCT. 28
North Platte at McCook, 6 p.m.
Northeastern JC at Western Nebraska
OCT. 30
Lamar at Southeast CC
Otero at Trinidad State
NOV. 4 – Nov. 7 – Region IX Tournament at Casper, Wyo.
Up-to-date information about MCC volleyball including up-to-date schedule and changes, livestream links for home games, rosters, photos, statistics and more can be found on the MCC Athletics website, www.mccindians.com