The National Junior College Athletic Association has rejected an appeal by Western Nebraska Community College and upheld its decision last month to declare a Lady Cougar basketball player ineligible and forfeit WNCC’s first 13 victories of the season.

A majority vote of the NJCAA Executive Committee stood by the December 7th ruling that Evgenia “Jess” Samorodova is not eligible to compete as an amateur because she played in Israel on either a professional team or one with professionals on it.

WNCC still has one option left…a 20-day period during which it can request arbitration…a move the school is considering.

The NJCAA committee vote disappointed WNCC officials. College vice president of student services Dr Sue Yowell says she felt the 100-plus page appeal submitted by the school adequately disproved the initial claim through official rosters and box scores of the official organization of professional basketball in Israel.

WNCC had the option of the written appeal or a hearing before the NJCAA, and Yowell says that “in hindsight,” a hearing might have given the school a better opportunity to refute any “possible documentation or testimony not disclosed in NJCAA’s initial letter.”

The problem, according to Yowell, was that it might have been several months before a hearing was scheduled while the NJCAA had to respond to the written appeal within 21 days.

Samorodova’s ineligibility and the 13 forfeits don’t affect WNCC’s eligibility for post-season play, and none of the games were Region IX contests…leaving the Cougars fully in the hunt to host the regional tournament. WNCC is officially now 4-13 on the year, 1-0 in South Sub-Region play heading into a home game Friday night with McCook Community College.