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NWC Miscues Mount in Loss to Casper
By RANDAL HOROBIK
Tribune Sports Editor
Northwest College head coach Flavia Siqueira had plenty of questions but not many answers following the 20th-ranked Trappers' 27-25, 20-25, 25- 17, 25-22 loss at the hands of Casper last Thursday. The contest was a rematch of last year's Region IX North championship game.
"I don't know how we can play so inconsistently," Siqueira said following the loss, which dropped Northwest to a mark of 8-3 overall and 3-2 within the North sub-region. "We've been training and trying, but it seems like when it is game time, some of them lose it. If anyone from the community has an idea, have them get in touch with me."
Siqueira's frustration was understandable after the Trappers spent much of Thursday looking like a faint shadow of the team fans witnessed earlier in the week. After serving 100 percent in its last two games before Thursday's showdown with Casper, the Trappers were guilty of seven service errors in game one alone.
Especially costly was a string of three consecutive missed serves that helped Casper erase Northwest's lead and steal game one. The Trappers had surged out to a five-point lead early in the game.
"It made a huge difference. You can't waste that many serves against a team as good as Casper," said Siqueira.
Northwest returned to form in game two. The Trappers vaulted to an 8-2 lead and served for four of their six ace serves for the night in capturing a five-point win and tying the contest up at one game apiece.
From there, inconsistency returned to haunt Siqueira and the Trappers.
Casper burst out of the gate for a 13-6 lead in game three. Northwest scored five of the next six points to fight back within three, but the return of Trapper service errors allowed Casper to score seven of the next nine points, and the visiting team rolled to victory.
"They weren't doing anything differently," Siqueira said. "They played the same rotation against us that they had the first two games. They did the things we expected them to do out there. It just goes back to not being a consistent team."
That lack of consistency drove Siqueira to shake things up for the final game of the contest. Juggling her lineup and rotation, the Trappers' coach watched as Northwest jumped to an early four-point lead, only to commit six more service errors, including one on match point, as Casper rallied to take the victory.
For the night, the Trappers finished with 16 service errors. Northwest was also guilty of 27 hitting errors in the match, according to Siqueira, and surrendered yet another point on a rotation error. In all, more than 45 percent of Casper's points in the showdown came as the result of Trapper miscues.
"That fourth game, I did some crazy stuff with our lineup," said Siqueira. "We ran out of substitutions, but I still think they did a better job of executing than our regular rotation did in the third game."
Northwest will search this week for answers before taking off to participate in the Wyo-Braska tournament on Thursday. The tournament features a pair of top 10 teams in Western Nebraska and Northeastern Junior College.
"Our goal for that tournament will be to play with maturity," said Siqueira. "We need to take advantage of the opportunity to play top 10 teams and to learn from them. We need to see what they're doing that we're not and then learn from that."