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2 + 2 = 4th Place
Thursday was all roses for the Northwest College Trappers, as they played their way into the semifinals, but their title hopes were dashed by a powerful Western Nebraska team and they ended the weekend in fourth place.
The No. 3 Trappers opened with a sweep of Hill College and a four-set win over Polk State on Thursday to reach the semis, where they lost to the Cougars for the third time this season. Northwest fell to Hillsborough in four sets in the third-place match to go 2-2.
NWC head coach Shaun Pohlman put the pair of season-ending losses, as well as the fourth-place finish, into perspective.
“Falling short means we were expected to do something bigger and better,” Pohlman said, “and to be honest, I think the odds of us doing that were against us.”
He noted that three of the Trappers’ (33-6) four losses during the regular season were to the two teams that played for the championship, College of Southern Idaho and Western Nebraska, who, together with Blinn College, have won nine of the last 10 national championships.
“We’ve competed with some programs that are perennial powers. This is the first year we’ve been ranked near the top all season,” he said. “Having the opportunity to play those teams at this level is a measure of our success.
“We were upset about those losses, but when (we) consider all the facts, it makes it hard to hang our heads,” he said. “We’re making headway; we’re making great strides with our program.”
A pair of Thursday wins earned the Trappers a spot in the semifinals as well as another shot at Western Nebraska, which beat the Trappers in a five- and four-set match during the preseason.
“We felt really, really good going into that match,” Pohlman said. “We knew we were capable of beating them and we had high expectations. All our emotions were positive before the match.”
Right from the beginning, though, things went badly for the Trappers, as the Cougars’ powerful attack quickly took a 9-2 lead. The Trappers held the line through seven rotations, but after they cut the lead to five at 13-8, the Cougars went on a 7-2 streak to take a 20-10 lead. NWC managed to close the gap to five points, before dropping the set, 25-17.
The Trappers made a determined effort to even the match in set two, overcoming an early Western lead and taking an 8-7 lead that they expanded to 11-7 off the serve of Emily Herrera, who notched an ace. They held the lead through five rotations before the Cougars tied the match at 13. The teams exchanged the lead three times before Western finally took an 18-17 lead and quickly added three more points. NWC got one point back, but the Cougars responded with two more to make the score 23-18. Refusing to give up, though, the Trappers scored three unanswered points and after Western scored their 24th point, Kaite Johnson closed the gap to 24-22 with a kill. NWC’s next serve, though, went into the net, and Western Nebraska went up 2-0.
Needing only one set to win, Western Nebraska smelled victory, and stepped up their game a notch. The Trappers didn’t fold, though, staying within comeback range and trailing only 11-9 after Herrera hit a winner across the court. Then the Cougars began to put the match away, scoring the next six points, and after giving up one on a kill by Johnson, knocked down four more that put the match out of reach. They closed the match with a 5-1 run.
Pohlman attributed the loss to his staff’s failure to have a plan B.
“We had high expectations, and we never considered that things would not go well,” he said. “In our minds, we never expected that to happen. We never prepared the team for that.”
The loss sent the Trappers to the third-place match against the No. 5 Hillsborough Community College Hawks. They had beaten fourth-seeded Iowa Western in a mild upset in the quarterfinal round before losing to the eventual champions, Southern Idaho.
In the first set, the Trappers appeared to have recovered from Friday’s defeat and took a 25-23 first-set win.
But the Trappers could not repeat the win. The Hawks broke an 8-8 tie in set two with a 10-1 run as Northwest’s blocks went out of bounds and attacks just missed the line. Hillsborough coasted to a 25-13 win to tie that match.
The Trappers’ troubles continued in set three. Northwest trailed 20-17, but a missed serve prevented them from closing the gap and the Hawks closed the set with five unanswered points.
Taking a 2-1 lead fired the Hawk team up and they took control of set four by taking an early 8-3 lead that the Trappers were unable to overcome. Hillsborough led 17-13 and eventually pulled away for a 25-16 match-clinching win.
The Trappers took their first-round match with No. 14 Hill College (Hillsboro, Texas) 25-20, 25-19, 25-18, but the team from Texas didn’t make it easy. The Rebels stayed with NWC in the first set, even leading for a time, and the Trappers were unable to take more than a two-point lead until the serve rotated to Teodora Tepavac with Trappers leading 17-15. A block and a kill by Aleksandra Djordjevic followed by a kill by Johnson stretched the lead to 20-15.
The Trappers took a commanding 6-2 lead in the second set and never trailed after that.
The pattern didn’t change much in set three, in which the Trappers led by three or four points most of the way, and led 20-15 with the quarterfinals in sight. Two Hill points were countered by kills from Djordjevic and Johnson, and a block by Lauga Gauta and Tuiana Filiaga followed with a block that filled in for a point giving NWC a 23-17 lead. Filiaga accounted for point 24 and Maliyah Tela set up Emily Herrera for match point.
Djordjevic led the Trappers with 14 kills and Johnson added nine. Tepavac had seven kills and no errors to go with a team-high 11 digs. Easton Clements and Gauta each had six kills. Libero Aimee Molina added 11 digs as well.
A sterner challenge awaited the Trappers in the second round, as the No. 6 Polk State Eagles greeted them by taking a 25-21 victory in the first set. Djordjevic opened the set with a kill that was followed by an ace served by Tela and a tip kill by Casey Rich for an early 3-0 lead, but the Eagles quickly drew even. Still, the Trappers seemed to be in control, holding leads as much as five points until Polk evened the score at 17 all. A timeout by NWC failed to halt the Eagles, who took a 23-17 lead, and after a Trapper hitting violation put the Eagles at set point, an attack by Djordjevic was blocked for the winner, and for the first time in the postseason, the Trappers were behind 1-0.
In set two, the Trappers led early, but the Eagles drew even at 7-7, and then took a 9-8 lead. Polk continued to hold the lead until the Trappers drew even at 20-20 after a service ace by Djordjevic and an Eagle hitting error. An exchange of points followed until the Trappers were on the brink of falling behind two sets to none, when Polk grabbed a 24-22 lead. But a block by Tela and Easton Clements earned a side out, and Tepavac uncorked two ace serves to put the Trappers at set point with a 25-24 lead and set off a frenzied reaction for the Trapper bench. On the next serve, Tela and Clements again teamed up for a block that scored set point and tied the match 1-1.
Polk responded by opening the next set with three unanswered points that were quickly matched by NWC. Again the teams exchanged one-point leads until Polk opened up a 13-9 lead. Tela and Djordjevic teamed up for three kills and an Eagle attack went out of bounds to tie the set again and the teams began trading points again. Polk took a 19-17 lead, but Tepavac used an assist from Tela and another from Djordjevic to tie the score and put the Trappers ahead with a third kill. Gauta’s kill extended the lead to 22-20. Polk scored one more point, but missed on the serve and Tepavac served two aces to finish the set 25-21.
Pumped up by the two close wins, the Trappers took an easy in for the final set. Tepavac continued her power serving in the early going that put the Trappers up 10-6, and they built the lead steadily on their way to a 25-15 win that sealed the match.
Tepavac was three aces shy of a triple double. The sophomore — who was Northwest’s lone member of the All-Tournament team — notched a team-high 18 kills, and a match-high 21 digs.
Djordjevic had 17 kills, 15 digs and three aces, while Gauta added 16 kills and six digs. Molina added 14 digs.