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Northwest Shows Flashes Of Potential, Inconsistency
Northwest College won three straight matches before dropping the closer of the Golden Dome Invitational Tournament last weekend.
The Trappers (5-3) opened with two straight-set wins over Rocky Mountain College JV-B (25-14, 25-21, 25-10) and Colorado Northwestern Community College (25-21, 25-16, 25-18) Friday afternoon.
Friday’s play started with the serve. The Trappers recorded 24 aces across six sets, to 14 errors in the two convincing triumphs.
“As a team we really gelled and did really well on Friday,” said Trappers head coach Shaun Pohlman.
Outside hitter Ana Jakovljevic led the Trappers’ offense with 10 kills in each Friday victory. Sophomore Felicity Zegarelli added six against Rocky Mountain and seven against Colorado Northwestern.
Freshman Inoa Fields, who, along with Jakovljevic was named to the all-tournament team, had eight kills and just one error against Colorado. Middle blocker Vera Horstmann added a total of 11 kills Friday while fellow middle Jamila Biglow had eight.
“I think we’re distributing the ball better,” Pohlman said of the Trapper offense.
But Northwest’s level of play dipped in the beginning of Saturday morning’s game against Great Falls JV.
“I don’t know why but things turned around on Saturday,” Pohlman said. “We just went back to a dysfunctional team.”
The Trappers found themselves down 16-10 and unable to make a clean pass in the first set before Pohlman called a timeout. As the team did multiple times against Rocky Mountain Aug. 26, Northwest regrouped and came back to win 27-25.
Northwest won the next two sets 25-20, 25-16 to take the match behind a few of the Trappers’ best performances.
Middle blocker Krystalyn Sloan’s 10 kills matched Jakovljevic’s 10 from the outside to lead the offense against Great Falls.
Libero Kayla Van Hee’s 18 digs against Great Falls were the most any Trapper had in a single game in Sheridan. She finished the tournament with a team-high 38.
“I thought she (Van Hee) kept a good attitude, was working hard and really did a good job against Great Falls,” Pohlman said.
But the sophomore libero’s play slipped in Northwest’s loss to Rocky Mountain College JVA. Elisa Brooks led the team with 11 digs in only one set of action while Van Hee recorded eight in two sets.
Pohlman said Van Hee’s struggles are largely mental, and in the Trappers’ final game she “just lost a little bit of confidence for some reason.
“When she’s confident and she knows she can, she does that position proud,” Pohlman said. “When she loses her vote of confidence that’s when things start going south.”
Taking control of the libero position will be key for Van Hee and the entire Trapper team, which is need of consistent passing to set up the offense.
Northwest’s 22-25, 15-25, 16- 25 loss to Rocky Mountain’s ‘A’ team was largely due to a lack of firepower.
With Jakovljevic sitting out for undisclosed reasons, the Trappers were without their goto attacker in the final match.
Zegarelli had 26 kills in Sheridan, 12 of which came against the Rocky Mountain ‘A’ team. Megan Huddleston added six and Fields had four, but no other Trapper had more than two.
Fields finished the tournament with 24 kills and only nine errors, earning her a spot on the All-Tournament team, alongside Jakovljevic who had 30 kills to only three errors plus six service aces.
Pohlman said Jakovljevic will be back in the lineup this weekend, when Northwest travels to Rock Springs to take on the New Mexico Military Institute at 4 p.m. Friday and Western Nebraska Community College at 1 p.m. Saturday.