Your future, our focus
The Northwest volleyball team’s six-game win streak ended with a heavy thud over the weekend.
The Trappers won only one set as they dropped back-to-back conference matches on the road and fell from third to fourth in Region IX North.
“We were just mentally not there,” said head coach Shaun Pohlman.
Northwest (15-10, 5-4) had been rolling, winning six in a row and eight of nine, and hadn’t lost consecutive games since Sept.6-7. The Trappers are now just 2-5 away from the Cabre Gym.
Pohlman said he doesn’t understand why Northwest owns such contrasting home-road splits
“We don’t treat road games different than we treat home games,” he said.
Friday’s match against No. 5 Western Wyoming in Rock Springs was over in three one-sided sets. The Mustangs took it to Northwest 25-15, 25-16, 25-18.
The Trapper attack struggled to generate offense and recorded only 27 kills, tied for Northwest’s lowest mark of the season.
Sophomore Ana Jakovljevic’s effectiveness was neutralized. The nation’s fifth-leading scorer (points per set) was held to just seven kills and three errors on 22 attempts. It was the All-American’s lowest kill total in a match in which she played at least three sets this season. Her .182 hitting percentage tied for her worst mark of the season.
Jakovljevic added five digs and two aces.
Vera Horstmann led the team with eight kills and three errors on 19 attempts. The freshman also had one solo and one assisted block.
Pohlman said Horstmann came into the game mentally prepared to do what it took to succeed.
Megan Huddleston added four kills and only one error on eight attempts.
Middle blocker Krystalyn Sloan contributed one solo block and two assists.
Freshman libero Elisa Brooks had only six digs against Western’s attack.
Pohlman said an ineffective block made life hard on Northwest’s back row.
“We just had no presence from our blockers,” Pohlman said. “We’re not giving our secondary defense any chances.”
The Trappers ran a 6-2 offense, in which the setter is always playing in the back row, rather than their usual 5-1, in which one setter plays all six rotations.
Pohlman said he made the switch so that he could strengthen the Trappers’ block.
“We weren’t able to slow down anything,” he said. “So by going to a 6-2 we were able to get a bigger and better block.”
Starting sophomore Mikaela Heble had 13 assists in 24 attempts and four digs while freshman Kimber Call had 10 assists on 24 attempts and five digs. Each played in all three sets.
Pohlman went back to a 5-1 but still used both setters in a four-set loss to Central Wyoming Saturday.
Heble had 20 assists in 49 attempts and Call tallied 17 in 44 tries as the Trappers lost 25-23, 25-19, 19-25, 20-25.
Rather than name a starting setter going forward Pohlman said he will let the two players decide who will run the offense.
“I’m hoping that a setter will step into the role the team needs,” Pohlman said.
Jakovljevic rebounded against the Rustlers with 21 kills, six digs and four block assists. She also committed 11 errors but Pohlman said that even the best of players are only as good as the team around them.
“If our team is down its kind of hard for one person to pull the entire team up,” Pohlman said.
Jakovljevic swung 43 times, her second-highest total for a four-set match.
Sophomore Nicoleta Titonea played one of her best games of the year. The middle blocker scored six kills, with only one error on 15 attempts.
“I put her in, and she didn’t come out,” Pohlman said.
The coach said Titonea played with the “grit, determination, and fight” that many on the team lacked.
“It’s what everybody needs to figure out and find,” Pohlman said.
Northwest’s back line defense was picked up by freshman Inoa Fields, who tallied 10 digs for the first time this season. Fields also contributed five kills and four errors on 13 attempts as an outside hitter.
Brooks led the team with 13 digs and tied with Jakovljevic for the team-high in aces with three.
Sloan, a freshman had another solo block and three assists to go along with seven kills.
Northwest will have one more chance to figure out how to win on the road before traveling to the Region IX tournament in Torrington Nov. 6-9.
The Trappers will head to Torrington to face Eastern Wyoming at 7 p.m. Friday and then square off against Laramie County at 3 p.m. Saturday. Northwest beat both teams in three sets in consecutive home games Oct. 5-6.
This weekend’s matches might be the last opportunity for the Trappers to iron out their issues before the postseason.