Your future, our focus
Northwest Seeded 9th, Face 8th-seed State College of Florida
For the last 11 days, the Northwest College volleyball team has been asking a question that head coach Shaun Pohlman has no answer for.
Why not us?
Barely two weeks removed from knocking off No. 8-ranked Western Wyoming en route to winning the Region IX Tournament at Casper College, the Lady Trappers head back to Casper today (Thursday) for the first round of the NJCAA Division I Volleyball National Championship. And with a mountain-sized amount of momentum and confidence on his team’s side, Pohlman believes the Lady Trappers could be in line for a big finish.
That finish, in Pohlman’s players’ minds, is going to involve a national title. Before and after each practice since the Region IX tourney, the Lady Trappers have broken their team huddles with a chant of “Why not us?”
“Is there any reason why Northwest College can’t win this? I can’t find an answer to that question,” Pohlman said. “Do we not have the talent? No, we’ve got the talent. Do we not have the drive? No, we have the drive. Why shouldn’t we shoot for winning the whole thing? Why sell ourselves short?”
With a 28-8 record and a plethora of holdover talent from last season’s eighth-place nationals team, nobody should be selling NWC short when it begins its trek toward a national title starting with a 1 p.m. Thursday showdown against State College of Florida.
If the Lady Trappers, seeded ninth in the field of 16, battle past the eighth-seeded Manatees, it could set up a potential meeting with the nation’s top-seeded and No. 1-ranked Iowa Western Community College (37-1) on Friday.
Like the 15 other teams, NWC is coming off close to two gameless weeks following its region tournament victory. Pohlman has used that time to prepare his team for the biggest stage of the year, and an opponent that he and his players know virtually nothing about.
“There’s only so much we can control about the other side of the net, and a lot we can control on our own side,” Pohlman said. “We tried to solidify what we do, what Trapper volleyball is and how good we are at it. But at the end of the day, we can’t change a whole lot in a week and a half.
“We just hope that the opponent has to make adjustments against us instead of us having to make adjustments against them,” he continued. “If we’re going to be competitive, it’s going to be based off the fact that we’re good enough to be competitive in the first place.”
A year ago, Pohlman took his then 10th-seeded Trappers to Casper, and came home eighth. This season, he’s ready for more, and sees no reason why not to expect as much.
“Why not us ... it’s something that reminds you ‘Hey, we’ve worked just as hard as anyone else, why don’t we deserve this as much as any other team?’” Pohlman said. “I felt good about our chances last year ... I feel really good about our chances this year.”
Live coverage of games, results and other information about the NJCAA Division I Volleyball National Championship can be found under the tournament results tab at www.njcaacasper.net/. You can follow Powell Tribune Sports Editor Joe Alberico on Twitter at handle @SE_Alberico, as well as the Powell Tribune Facebook page for updates.