Your future, our focus
BY DAVE BONNER TRIBUNE SPORTS WRITER
Courtesy of the Powell Tribune
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Trapper volleyball welcomed the No. 13-ranked team in the country, the Central Wyoming College Rustlers, on Friday, but the night ended with a disappointing 3-1 loss.
Northwest College (16-4 overall, 1-2 Region IX) came into the game on a two-match winning streak, but CWC (13-5 overall, 5-0 Region IX) is a disciplined team that does not make many errors.
“They are a team that does not make mistakes, and if you make mistakes you are not going to beat them,” NWC coach Scott Keister said.
The Trappers started out the first set going point-for-point with CWC, until the Rustlers pulled away to an 18-12 advantage.
The Trappers countered with a combination of good blocks and hitting but ultimately fell short 25-21.
Coming into the match, the Trappers were attempting to incorporate new setter freshman Emma Hanson, as the team’s starting setter Jacie Walker was out of town due to a family emergency.
“Emma [Hanson] played well,” Keister said. “It is difficult to start a new setter, and I take partial blame for thrusting her into that situation.”
The second set did not start as well for the Trappers, as hitting errors led to the team hitting at a negative kill percentage for the whole game, with 28 kills against 30 errors.
The Rustlers never trailed in the second set and led by more than five points for almost the entire set, winning 25-15.
The third set started out just as poorly as the second, but early timeouts were key in helping the Trappers battle back.
NWC trailed 15-8 before the squad rallied with an 8-1 run to tie the score at 16. From that point the Trappers were able to use the momentum to complete the come back, 25-20.
Unfortunately for the Trappers, the momentum stopped heading into the fourth set.
The Rustlers jumped out to an 11-1 lead and never looked back.
The Trappers were unable to rally as errors piled up throughout the fourth set, as they fell 25-11 to give the Rustlers the 3-1 victory.
Despite the loss, Keister felt his team was not out of the match entirely at any point, but the coach said he could make improvements to ensure everybody is ready to enter into the match at any point and contribute.
Keister also felt the team may have taken the preseason a little lightly, and moving forward, he may schedule more difficult opponents to help prepare the team for the regular season and conference schedule.
The NWC squad has little time to turnaround, as they host conference opponents Casper College (12-12 overall, 3-3 Region IX) on Friday at 7 p.m. and Western Wyoming (3-16 overall, 1-2 Region IX) on Saturday at 3 p.m.
The team will also head to Billings on Tuesday to take on the Rocky Mountain College JV at 7 p.m.