Your future, our focus
Libero position still there for the taking as Brooks, Van Hee compete for the starter’s role
The Northwest Trappers volleyball team continued to roll against un-ranked opponents while struggling against the nation’s best at the Wyo-Braska Tournament in Scottsbluff, Neb., over the weekend.
Northwest (8-7) is 0-6 against opponents that have been ranked top-20 in the country this season, including 0-4 against teams ranked in the top five.
Head coach Shaun Pohlman said he was happy to come home 2-1 but said “you want to be able to compete a little bit better against some of those ranked teams.”
Both of the Trappers’ tournament victories came in three sets, as did their lone loss.
Northwest started with a 3-0 win over Lamar CommunityCollege (25-22, 25-14, 25-13) early Friday afternoon.
Sophomore Ana Jakovljevic had her third-straight doubledouble by recording 17 kills and 10 digs. She also had six service aces.
Freshman Vera Horstmann notched seven kills, with only two errors to go along with two digs and two block assists.
Head coach Shaun Pohlman said Horstmann, who totaled 23 kills and eight errors in Nebraska, has been contributing points at a more efficient pace.
“She’s killing the ball and being able to get more done with it,” Pohlman said.
Horstmann had a stellar .319 kill percentage at Wyo-Braska, almost twice as good as the .146 percentage she had coming into the tournament.
Freshman Inoa Fields had eight kills, three errors and eight digs against Lamar.
Friday evening’s match against No. 2 Western Nebraska was Northwest’s second matchup against the Cougars in two weeks.
The Trappers took the first set of Sept. 7th’s 3-1 loss, but were swept by the Cougars 14- 25, 18-25, 18-25.
No Trapper reached double-digit kills for the first time in a match all season.
Jakovljevic and Horstmann each had nine, while no other Trapper had more than three.
Freshman libero Elisa Brooks led Northwest with 14 digs, but played too hesitantly at times and was pulled for sophomore Kayla Van Hee.
“If you’re going to hesitate in your job that tells me that you don’t want to be out there,” Pohlman said.
Van Hee finished the Wyo- Braska tourney as Northwest’s libero, getting five digs against the Cougars and then 11 (to Brooks’ six) in the Trappers’ final game (a 25-17, 25-15, 25-22 win) against McCook College.
But that’s not to say the libero jersey is Van Hee’s now. The Trappers have yet to solidify their team’s most critical defensive position, which both women have played this season.
Pohlman said he is going to see how each player performs in this week’s practices before determining who gets the nod this weekend.
The competition shouldn’t create any problems between the teammates, who Pohlman said are close friends.
“They are competing for the same position but they support each other 100 percent,” Pohlman said. “That says a lot about the maturity of those two.”
Offensively, Pohlman said he saw some positive changes in Nebraska.
“Vera’s getting more kills on the right side,” he said. “Our middles are being more involved and they’re getting the ball a lot more.”
Better set distribution was key as the Trappers were without sophomore outside hitter Felicity Zegarelli, who did not travel with the team so she could pro-actively deal with a health issue.
Jakovljevic, who burst a bursa sac in her knee against Western Wyoming Sept. 13, racked up seven kills and six digs in just two sets of play.
Pohlman said he just wanted to give his leading offensive threat a rest with the match pretty well in hand.
“It was an opportunity to see how deep we are,” he said.
Sloan benefited from the opportunity and had a game-high 12 kills to go with a dig and block.
Horstmann had seven kills and four digs in the win.
Northwest hits the road yet again for a pair of games this weekend. The Trappers stop in Sheridan on Friday for a 7 p.m. game and then play Casper College 3 p.m. Saturday.
Pohlman said travel is part of college athletics and this year’s schedule is actually less grueling than last year’s.
“The region tourney is on the road this year and we’re going to have to be a good road team.”