Your future, our focus
Two big wins on the road kept the Northwest Trappers’ undefeated in Region IX play last weekend.
The Trappers took down Sheridan College in three sets on Friday and followed up Saturday with a 3-1 defeat of Casper College to run their record to 18-4 and 4-0 in the conference.
“Any time you get two wins on the road against two good teams, it’s a good weekend,” NWC head coach Shaun Pohlman said.
Friday’s match started with a tightly fought set that ended with a 26-24 win for the Trappers. In set two, they built a bigger margin on the way to a 25-15 win, and dominated the Generals in the final set to end the match 25-12.
Casper College was a tougher opponent, though. The Thunderbirds began the match by taking a 7-1 lead, but the Trappers fought back to win the set 25-21. Casper again took the lead to begin the second set, and the Trappers again came back and took the lead. With a 20-16 lead, though, NWC saw the Casper team turn the set around and eventually knot the score at 24- 24 before scoring the last two points and tying the match at one set apiece.
The Trappers jumped out to a 5-1 lead in set three on their way to a 25-18 win, but began the fourth set by falling behind 6-1. Again they staged a comeback and finished the match with a 25-19 win.
Pohlman said last week that he preferred to have his team “start slow and finish strong,” and that was how NWC played in Casper. But Pohlman said doing that later in the season would not be a good idea.
“I don’t know if we can do that in the regional tournament, or if we get to nationals, we can’t do that against those kinds of teams," Pohlman said.
Pohlman said injuries played a role in the Casper College match.
“Their main hitter, who scores a lot of points for them, went down in the third set,” he said. “They had just gotten their middle back from an injury and earlier they lost a player with a torn ACL.”
Pohlman said they are at the point in the season when the competition produces injuries.
“We have a couple out right now ourselves,” he said. “We’re going to take some days to rest and heal up. We’ll do what we can to stay healthy.”
This weekend, Eastern Wyoming and Laramie County Community College come to town, and the Trappers will be aiming at keeping out of the loss column. The weekend action will complete the first half of the conference season.
“Four and 0 is a good start, but there are 12 games left in the conference season,” Pohlman said. “A lot can happen yet.”
The Trappers take on the Golden Eagles at 7 p.m. on Friday and the Lancers at 3 p.m. on Saturday in Cabre Gym.