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NWC Wins Three of Four at Idaho Tournament
By RANDAL HOROBIK
Tribune Sports Editor
Perhaps there won't be as slow a start to this season as Northwest College head volleyball coach Flavia Siqueira expected.
After warning throughout the preseason that her freshman-loaded team would likely need some time to acclimate themselves to the pace and complexity of collegiate volleyball, Siqueira returned from the team's first tournament at the College of Southern Idaho wearing a smile on her face. The Trappers captured victory in three of the team's four contests in Twin Falls.
"Our goal for the weekend was just to come home with an even record, so to get three wins was great. I'm definitely pleased," said Siqueira. "The kids worked hard and everyone had the opportunity to play for us."
Northwest opened the 2009 campaign with a dominating sweep of Colorado Northwestern. Everyone on the Trapper bench saw playing time in the 25-5, 25-22, 25-9 sweep.
"Our freshmen got a lot of playing time in that contest," noted Siqueira. "That really helped us, because I think some of them went into the tournament a bit nervous and shaky. Being able to get them on the floor really helped to settle them down."
From there, the Trappers were thrown to the opposite end of the volleyball spectrum, meeting fifth-ranked Salt Lake Community College. For most of three games Northwest proved up to the challenge before wearing out and falling 25-20, 23-25, 25-16, 25-8.
"Salt Lake definitely showed that it was deserving of its preseason ranking," said Siqueira. "They were a tough, consistent team and I was proud of how we played in the first two games against them. We got a little inconsistent as the match went on though, and that's not something we can do."
The Trappers didn't linger on the year's first loss for long. The team bounced back to the winning side of the ledger with a 25-17, 25-15, 20-25, 25-22 win over the College of Eastern Utah before closing out the tournament with a 22-25, 25-17, 25-23, 25-21 victory over Snow College.
"Those were both good matches for us," said Siqueira. "Eastern Utah had a middle that ran a fast ball and Snow (College) put up a very good block against us that we had to get used to reading and hitting around. It was good to see both of those.
Freshman Paula Barros paced the Northwest attack with 45 kills for the weekend. The Sao Paulo, Brazil, native also tallied four ace serves in the tournament. Sophomore Irelis Ilarraza added 41 kills to give the Trappers a potent one-two punch at the net.
"Danielle York, Danielle Stewart and Valerie Lesu all played well as freshmen for us as well," said Siqueira. "They saw a lot of time on the floor this weekend for us. Brianna (Reed) and Marisa (Shigetomi) each had passing ratings above 2.2 for the tournament, which is very good."
That said, the Trappers' coach certainly saw areas to address as well.
"This tournament was good, because we saw a lot of areas where there was room for improvement and a lot of little things we need to do better," said Siqueira. "Our consistency needs to be better. We can't go from how we played the first couple of games against Salt Lake and then start playing at a preseason level."
The Trappers have two games on tap this week, starting with a Wednesday contest against Rocky Mountain College that will be played at Cody High School. Northwest plays its first contest in Cabre Gymnasium on Friday against Williston State College. Both matches begin at 7 p.m.