Brooklynn Bradbury led NIC with 18 assists Saturday night against the visiting Central Arizona Vaqueras as the Lady Cardinals won in straight sets 25-18, 25-17 and 25-11.
NIC swept the home tournament winning all four games of the Coeur d’Alene Best Western Invitational.
HayleeMae Dennis spiked 11 kills during the match and Yang Yang followed with 10 kills and 11 digs.
“I try to reiterate every day we practice that we need to get better because our toughest competition starts on Thursday against Salt Lake Community College (SLCC),” head coach Kandice Gregorak said. “I make sure to tell my girls how good they are, but I also make sure to tell them we aren’t good enough yet. We need to stay hungry and want to keep getting better.”
As of Saturday, NIC was ranked No. 2 in the nation in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) polls and the team will most likely be ranked No. 1 this week after the College of Southern Idaho defeated top ranked Iowa Western Community College. The Scenic West Athletic Conference (SWAC) has four teams currently in the top 16 of the NJCAA polls.
Earlier in the day, NIC defeated the visiting University of Great Falls Argos winning three straight sets.
Leeta Grap from Kamuela, Hawaii led the Lady Cardinals with 11 digs. Freshman Marissa Verduci from Spokane, Wash. smashed down eight kills and freshman Allison Meehan set up 11 assists for NIC.
NIC defeated the Northwest College Trappers of Powell, Wyo., in straight sets with scores of 25-15, 25-17 and 25-15.
“We always tell ourselves that if we play the way that we know how to play like limit our errors and making sure we’re always talking, always moving our feet, then we’ll be successful, and I think that is what has made us so successful lately,” freshman libero Russia Robinson said, who had nine digs in the game.
Yang Yang led both teams with 10 kills and contributed eight digs and Dennis had eight kills to go along with seven digs.
Hours before that game, the Lady Cardinals swept the Sheridan College Generals in the opening match of the NIC volleyball tournament 25-9, 25-12 and 25-10.
After taking the lead 3-2 in the first game, it was all down hill from there for the visiting Generals.
The host Cardinals went on multiple 5-0 runs, forcing the Generals to take a timeout down 17-6. However, the
timeout was simply too late for the Generals to regroup, as NIC took the first game.
The match did not improve in Game Two for Sheridan, as the Cardinals went on almost an immediate 9-0 run.
After NIC went ahead 11-2, the Generals and Cardinals essentially traded points until freshman Marissa Verduci solidified the win with a kill.
The Lady Cardinals finalized the sweep in a fifteen minute game, going on a 6-0 run, followed by a 5-0 run.
Once again the Generals were compelled to call a timeout down 13-4.
Sheridan kept the game relatively even from there on, but the Lady Cardinals lead proved too much to overcome. NIC hosts Lewis-Clark State College Tuesday at 5 p.m. and SLCC Thursday at 7 p.m.
