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Northwest College Trappers Begin Region IX Tourney Thursday
Northwest College volleyball coach Shaun Pohlman has hyped the depth of his bench all season.
On Thursday and Friday, his bench got to live up to it.
Using reserves in the final two sets against Eastern Wyoming College on Thursday, and again for the third set in a match against Laramie County Community College a day later, the Trappers swept EWC 25- 12, 25-14, 25-14 and LCCC 25- 17, 25-20, 25-23 at Cabre Gym to close out the regular season.
The two Region IX victories gave NWC (25-8, 11-1) the conference title outright. Although the Trappers tied Western Wyoming C.C. in region record, NWC defeated WWCC in four sets earlier this season, while it took Western Wyoming five to down the Trappers on Oct. 25.
The region championship gives the Trappers a first-round bye when the Region IX Tournament begins Wednesday at Casper College. NWC will play its first match of the tourney Thursday at 4 p.m., where it will face either Sheridan or Central Wyoming.
And the Trappers can partly pin the No. 1 seed on its reserves.
“The girls coming off the bench provided a great spark, and we trust everyone on that bench to contribute when we need them to,” Pohlman said. “I was really happy to have a chance to play some of those girls and get them some momentum heading into the postseason.”
Needing to win out to secure the region, NWC started with a strong first set against EWC on Thursday night. And when Pohlman’s team cruised to the game-one win, he quickly inserted a new wave of Trappers who continued that trend.
Kristen Bailey and Emily Herrera started set two with back-to-back spikes, and a few moments later, starter Krystalyn Sloan knocked down a couple of aces for a 4-3 lead. Sloan and fellow regular Megan Huddleston remained on the floor in the second set to help lead the Trappers, as the two sophomores provided several blocks and kills down the stretch as the NWC lead ballooned to 13-7. Herrera added another kill, and then another moments later to make it a 16-9 advantage. Before the set was over, Casey Rich, Bailey and Elisa Brooks had all collected points to secure the win.
“Being out there with some of our reserves was awesome,” Sloan said. “Every girl on this team is ready to play when their number is called and every girl can have an impact. They showed that tonight.”
The reserves displayed some rust in the final set, as the Lances took advantage of Trapper errors and side outs to build a quick 6-3 lead. But an error mixed with another Herrera kill got NWC going again, and two straight aces from Huddleston put her team ahead for good. Herrera added two more kills as the lead grew to 16-11 and 20-12 before the Trappers finally proved too much for the visitors.
“It doesn’t matter who’s out there on the floor, we can bond quickly and get things going,” Huddleston said. “This sweep tonight is just a testament of how close this team is, and how quickly we can develop chemistry.”
With the pressure mounting a day later, Pohlman again pulled his starters after they grabbed a two-set advantage over LCCC. It was a sign of confidence, as the Trappers at times have struggled to complete sweeps this season. But again, his bench came through.
“You’ve got to take chances sometimes and give your players a chance to prove something,” Pohlman said. “As a coaching staff, we have confidence in every girl on this team, and they really solidified what I’ve been saying about our depth from the beginning.”
Aleksandra Djordjevic led NWC in kills with 12 against LCCC, while Vera Horstmann had nine. Teodora Tepavac led in digs with 13, Elisa Brooks had nine and Djordjevic had seven. Huddleston posted 21 assists and Kimber Call had 13.
NWC finished its regular season with a four-game homestand, going 3-1 and picking up some momentum heading into the most important tournament of the season. One team from the Region IX tourney will qualify for the NJCAA Division I National Tournament that begins Nov. 20 in Casper.
“At this point in the season, it’s about where their minds are, and if they are going to play for themselves and each other,” Pohlman said. “Now’s the time to see if the girls will allow themselves the opportunity to be a part of what we’ve been striving for all season."
Pohlman noted that although being the top seed in the tournament is nice, it comes with a caveat.
“The last two seasons, the number-one seed didn’t win the region tournament,” Pohlman said. “Hopefully we’ll break that curse this year. I’ve seen the postseason do some crazy things to people, and anything can happen.
“I’m just not sold on the idea that our team is going to be the one coming home with the trophy,” he added. “That doesn’t mean I don’t believe we won’t win, but I’m not sold that it’s outright ours in any way, shape or form.”