Raiders continue to roll with win at North Platte

9/18/14 • By The Telegram Staff

NORTH PLATTE -- For the second night in a row, the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II, No. 3 Central Community College volleyball team went on the road and picked up a win.

This time, the Raiders beat North Platte Community College 25-14, 25-12, 25-21 Thursday in North Platte.

"Anytime we play North Platte Community College, it's going to be a match," Central head coach Mary Young said. "They always have a nice team, so we always have good battles."

After the Raiders breezed to an 11-point win in the first set, North Platte made things interesting throughout Set 2.

It wasn't until the set was tied at 11 and Central's Cassidy Yong came up to serve that the Raiders really pulled away.

"Cassidy went up to serve when it was tied at 11 and when she was done it was 24-11," Young explained.

Two points later, the Raiders put away the set 25-12.

"We could have easily come unwound, but they pulled away an did what we did best and Cassidy did a whale of a job serving," Young said.

What Central did best, Young explained, was hitting well, and blocking well.

The Raiders went on to hold off North Platte 25-21 in the third set to complete their second straight sweep on the road.

"It's sometimes hard to maintain that focus (on road trips), so I want to give a huge shoutout to my players for saying focused on what we needed to do," Young said.

Though it wasn't perfect, the Raiders clicked when they needed to, Young said.

"We had quite a few more errors than we had in the past few matches, but we did enough right things at the right time to weather the storm," she said.

Skyler Erickson led the Raider attack with 11 kills, while Megan Anderson added 10 kills.

"Megan was on fire for us," Young said.

Young noted Makaleigh Yantzie's four-kill, two-assist, four-block match was just what the Raiders needed.

"Makaleigh Yantzie played so well for us on the right side," Young said. "She had four kills and did a great job of taking the second ball after Cassidy dug it. She played a nice match and that's what it's going to take to win matches."

Central hosts National Junior College Athletic Association Division I, No. 1 Iowa Western Community College Wednesday.

Thursday at North Platte

Central (14-2) 25 25 25

North Platte CC 14 12 21

* KILLS: Central - Skyler Erickson 11, Megan Anderson 10, Payton Chohon 9

* BLOCKS: Central - Anderson 4, Makaleigh Yantzie 4

* ACE SERVES: Central - Cassidy Yong 2

* ASSISTS: Central - Yong 36

* DIGS: Central - Erickson 12, Yong 12