Lady Cardinals Sweep Spartans in Matchup

Brooklynn Bradbury led the Lady Cardinals with 26 assists in victory over the Colorado Northwestern  Community College Spartans (CNCC). NIC won the match 25-5, 25-19, 25-12 Saturday afternoon.

Yang Yang had 14 kills in the match while Kaitlyn Molloy and Bradbury had 10 digs each.

Head coach Kandice Gregorak said after the first set that her and assistant coach Kelsey Stanley were going to try to play everyone in the game.

“Our first set today was great because we only made one serving error and one hitting error,” Gregorak said. “We need to play our best games at regionals. It could go any way and if we play Salt Lake we will be the underdog.”

This was the last home game of the season for the Cardinals and for sophomores, Bradbury, Yang, Molloy, and Shelby Lausen, it was their last home game in a NIC jersey.

“We need to get mentally tough if we are going to beat Salt Lake,” Bradbury said. “We know we have the better components and skill, but really we just have to be mentally tough and put everything together.”

NIC came out strong in this match winning the first set 25-5, but relapsed a little during the second set winning 25-19.

“We made more errors and played a little sloppy in the second set, but if we play better we can do well in regionals,” Gregorak said. “Yang Yang played fantastic today.”

“The season has been really good despite quite a few ups and downs,” said Lausen. “As the season has gone on we have gotten much better. We have a tough game coming up against Salt Lake next Friday deciding if we will go to nationals so we just have to prepare for that.”

The Cardinals will travel down to the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls for the Region 18 Tournament Oct. 31 and play CNCC Nov. 2 at 10:00 a.m. If NIC defeats CNCC, the Lady Cardinals will play Salt Lake at 4 p.m. the same day. If NIC wins that game, it will go on to play in the national tournament.