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NWC Spikers Play For No. 1 Seed Wednesday
The Northwest College volleyball team played its way back on top of the Region IX North standings over the weekend, sweeping Laramie County and Eastern Wyoming in three games. The Trappers have a chance to secure both the regular-season title and No. 1 seed in the postseason tournament this Wednesday.
“I’m very happy with how we played,” said Trapper coach Shaun Pohlman. “We still have an important game coming up with Sheridan. Depending on what happens we could fall as far as the No. 3 spot in the tournament, so we really need to come out and take care of things on Wednesday.”
Northwest captured a 25- 16, 25-21, 27-25 victory over LCCC on Friday night. They followed that with a 25-5, 25- 15, 25-20 thrashing of Eastern Wyoming on Saturday to improve to 18-11 overall this season and 9-2 in Region IX North play.
With a one-game lead in the standings over both Western Wyoming and Central Wyoming, the Trappers have already secured at least a share of the regular-season title. They need only a win on Wednesday night to grab the No. 1 seed for the postseason tournament, which Northwest College hosts beginning on Oct. 31.
Even with a loss, the Trappers could still claim both the outright title and No. 1 seed in Region IX North. Both Central Wyoming and Western Wyoming have a game against Casper College remaining on their schedules for this week and would have to win that game to remain in contention.
But nobody at Cabre Gymnasium is thinking anything other than victory against Sheridan, and after their performance this weekend there’s no reason the Trappers should. Northwest rode a 21-kill performance from Ana Jakovljevic to victory on Friday night against LCCC.
Perhaps even more impressive, Felicity Zegarelli, working her way back into regular duty following a rash of midseason injuries, was able to see full time duty. Zegarelli supported the Trappers’ net attack with 14 kills, but more impressively turned in an eye popping .722 hitting percentage on 18 attempts.
Becky Downs and Olivia Rogers added five kills apiece and combined for two solo and 14 block assists in the victory. Triniti Taylor had 43 assists and Katie Burnett finished with 13 digs. Nicolette Bloomer added two solo and eight assisted blocks.
As a team, the Trappers struck for a nearly unheard of .452 team hitting percentage on the night.
On Saturday against Eastern Wyoming, the Trappers used a streak where they scored 16 out of 17 points to storm away from the Lancers in game one and rode that momentum to a relatively easy victory.
Jakovljevic had 14 kills. Zegarelli added 11 as the workload was spread fairly evenly across the net for the Trappers. Downs added eight kills and Rogers had six kills.
Rogers also reached double figures with 11 block assists in the game. Katie Burnett added 17 digs while Trinity Talyor led the way in assists.
The Trappers will host Sheridan in a 7 p.m. Wednesday nght game that will also serve as sophomore night for the program. Burnett, Rogers, Downs, Allyson Mahon and Taylor Harris will be honored for their two years with the Trappers’ program.