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Trappers finish on road
The Northwest College Trappers secured their grip on first place in the region with two road wins last week that also saw one team member reach a personal milestone.
The No. 3 Trappers rolled over Western Wyoming in three sets and took Central Wyoming in four on what head coach Shaun Pohlman called “the toughest road trip we have.”
“It’s always tough to beat those two teams in their own gyms,” he said. “Beating both of them is a big win for us.”
With only two conference matches remaining, the Trappers are assured they will enter the regional tournament as the top seed.
Aleksandra Djordjevic gave the Trappers something else to celebrate when she recorded the 1,000th kill of her college career. Djordjevic has been among the leaders in NJCAA Division during this season. Most recently, she was third in the nation with 465 kills and second in kills per set with 4.74. She has scored 531 points, good for fourth place and is third in points per set with 5.4.
“It was nice to get our 25th win and the No. 1 seed,” Pohlman said, “and it was good to see Aleksandra (Djordjevic) get No. 1,000. She’s played really well for us.”
It isn’t unusual for a team to start slowly after enduring the long bus ride to Rock Springs, but that wasn’t the case for the Trappers. They dominated Western Wyoming in the first set and won the set by a double-digit margin, 25-13.
Western reacted to the defeat by putting up a stiffer challenge in the second set. The two teams battled on even terms throughout the set before Northwest pulled out a 25-21 win.
The Trappers completed the sweep with a 25-18 win in the third set. Northwest accomplished the win despite playing without Teodora Tepavac, one of the team’s major offensive threats. In her place, though, Kaite Johnson stepped up and led the team in kills with 14. Djordjevic contributed 10 kills and Lauga Gauta had nine.
Defensively, libber Aimee Molina led with 10 digs, Gauta had nine and setter Maliyah Tela had seven. Alye Wagner, Kelsey Marchant, Djordjevic, Clements and Johnson all made digs.
One statistic Pohlman took note of was blocking. Against the Mustangs, Clements and Gauta assisted on five and four blocks respectively and each made a solo block as well. Casey Rich and Jelena Slijepcevic also assisted with blocks.
“That’s something we’ve been looking for,” Pohlman said. “I really feel like our blocking has come a long way.
Tepavac’s knee was feeling better Saturday and she returned to the lineup for the match with Central. As was the case on Friday, the Trappers took an easy 25-14 win in the first set, but faced a tougher challenge in the second. The Trappers couldn’t shake the Rustlers, who battled to a 24-24 tie before scoring the final two points and tying the match at one set apiece with a 26-24 win.
The Trappers bounced back in set three, taking a lead and keeping it for a 25-15 win, and they kept rolling through set four, taking the set 25-17 and the match 3-1.
Djordjevic’s 21 kills led the Trappers, while Gauta accounted for 12. Tepavac added nine and Clements scored seven.
Tepavac led the defense with nine digs, Djordjevic, Tela and Molina each had seven. Casey Rich recorded four digs, Gauta three, Slijepcevic two and Clements one. Slijepcevic recorded Northwest’s only solo block, and she assisted in one, but Gauta recorded six block assists, Rich and Clements recorded four and Tepavac helped on one.
Pohlman said the Trappers can’t relax when they go up against Laramie County and Eastern Wyoming this weekend.
“Even though we beat both teams before, we can’t take them lightly, because anything can happen,” Pohlman said. “If we lose one, we probably wouldn’t be ranked third (in the nation), and if we qualify for nationals, they use the ranking when they seed teams.”
SOPHOMORE NIGHT Tuesday night, the Trappers honored the sophomore players with another win over the Rocky Mountain College JV team. They took a little time to warm up in the first set and trailed in the early going before tying the score at 16. After taking the lead on the next point, they never trailed, and an ace served by Tepavac scored set point.
The Trappers jumped ahead early in set two, and in spite of a game effort by Rocky Mountain, they steadily increased the lead until they were on the brink of winning the set 24-12. Rocky Mountain stepped up and fended off five Trapper attempts at set point before Gauta put the ball down to end the set, 25-17.
The Trappers followed the same script in set three. They took an early lead, but the Bears stayed close until Northwest won 25-20 on another kill from Gauta.
Seven Trapper sophomores were honored prior to the match. Tepavac, Djordjevic, Johnson, Molina, Tuiana Filiaga, Emily Herrera and Rich will finish their careers at NWC when the season ends.