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Trappers Still Battling Setting Woes, Says Pohlman
Just enough isn’t enough for Shaun Pohlman.
Although the newly ranked No. 20 Northwest College volleyball team swept Rocky Mountain College’s visiting JV team in a make-up match Tuesday at Cabre Gym, a 25-14, 25-18, 25-17 victory, the Trappers’ coach is looking for more decisive efforts.
NWC (14-7) was coming off a tough five-set loss to No. 5 Western Nebraska Community College last Saturday, and used its first home match of the season to get back on track. But Pohlman said his team lacked the same energy against Rocky Mountain that it had against WNCC five days ago.
“Obviously, not getting down and then playing down [to your competition] is good,” Pohlman said. “But we also didn’t play at the same level we did on Saturday.”
According to Pohlman, the Lady Trappers’ struggles start with their setters. The coach agreed that the team’s 43 kills (paced by nine each from Teodora Tepavac and Aleksandra Djordjevic) may not suggest any trouble, but pointed to the end of the third set.
Rocky Mountain stopped an NWC offensive burst with a kill, but still holding on to a 24-14 lead, the Trappers committed three straight setting errors that prolonged the match. It took a Bears serve into their own net to finally finish the win for NWC. Pohlman’s frustration may be grounded, as his team had a chance to flex its muscle against a team fielding seven players.
“Our struggles are still the same,” Pohlman added. “And it’s hard to believe that, because we had 43 kills and hit .356, but at the same time, we have a certain connection. If the hitters are off balance in any way, that means either the hitter was wrong or the set was wrong. And in most cases right now, the sets are wrong.”
In light of the setting issues, the Trappers have put together a nice streak since starting the season 5-6. Tuesday’s victory showed that even when it’s not firing on all cylinders, NWC can be effective.
The Trappers opened the first set with a 5-0 lead, capitalizing on a Rocky Mountain error before Tepavac stepped to the service line for four straight NWC points, including an ace from the Serbian. But a sprinkling of Trapper errors allowed the Bears to pull within 14-11, and it took two aces during a five-serve stretch from Megan Huddleston to seize control at 22-13.
“It’s hard playing teams that have seven players; they can be tough,” Huddleston said. “But our main goal is to stay disciplined and have fun.
“We’ve played some really tough teams these past few weeks, so we needed to look at what the rest of this week is going to look like with [then-ranked No. 7] Western Wyoming coming up and play tonight like we’ll have to play against them.”
NWC showed some of that early again in set two, racing out to a 7-1 cushion behind a flurry of kills. Tepavac, Emily Herrera, Jamila Biglow and Huddleston each had a kill in the early spurt, and Kristen Bailey added a block to get the Trappers going, but an error stopped the surge, and Rocky Mountain slowly climbed back.
A Bailey kill had NWC ahead 10-4, and sent her to the service line, but her fourth offering sailed out of bounds and started a Bears rally. The two teams appeared to be locked in a stalemate as Sarah Armstrong’s kill had Rocky Mountain within 16-9, and a few moments later, another Bears kill made it 20-14. Back-to-back-to-back Trapper errors and another miscue sandwiched around an NWC kill suddenly had the hosts reeling with a 22-18 lead, but Pohlman’s squad finally regrouped to score the final three points for the win.
“We show flashes of greatness, and then we’ll do something like commit errors two, three, four times in a row, and you can’t have that,” Pohlman added. “Maybe our struggles are a matter of us holding on to failure, or the idea of failure, but it has to stop because it’s holding us back.
“Right now, we’re doing just enough to get by, but just enough isn’t good enough. Just enough isn’t going to get us back to nationals.”