Your future, our focus
It wasn’t the fall Scott Keister expected, but it was still a success.
The Northwest College volleyball squad competed in its last two scrimmages of the fall on Saturday, playing exhibitions against Casper College and Laramie County Community College. The Trappers went 1-1 on the day, falling to Casper and defeating Laramie.
Unlike Northwest’s previous scrimmages against Miles and Dawson Community College, the Trappers’ opponents on Saturday both compete in Region IX. Getting a glimpse at the two Wyoming-based programs in the preseason could help the Trappers as they prep for the conference season in a few months.
“It gives us a little bit better idea of where we’re at,” Keister said. “Our region is just a different level. Until this weekend, I was like, ‘OK, where do we really stack up against our region.’”
NWC started the day against Casper and got off to a hot start, winning the first set 25-18. But Casper picked up momentum in the subsequent sets, winning those by scores of 25-15, 25-21 and 25-22 for a 3-1 exhibition win.
This marked the Trappers’ first time losing in the scrimmage season, but Keister said he didn’t think much of the outcome.
“I don’t know if it was so much as losing,” Keister said. “Coaches coach differently when it’s scrimmages; it’s about giving kids opportunities. But having somebody beat them, it was like, ‘Oh hey, maybe we’re not as great as we thought we were.’”
Immediately after the scrimmage against Casper, NWC took on Laramie County. That match was the opposite of the first, as the Trappers dropped the first set but won the next three.
“We struggled in that first set, and then they got their rhythm and the next three sets we were rocking and rolling,” Keister said. “We just came together, so it was nice to end on a positive note.”
As far as individual standouts, Keister noted Paige Weimer as someone who excelled on Saturday for “stepping up and getting comfortable at libero,” the coach said. Keister also saw growth from Sayler Larson, who “really started to place the ball.”
But more than the stellar individual efforts, the team’s cohesion impressed the coach.
“Our team was starting to click, which was good,” Keister said. “We want to be a team that doesn’t necessarily have one or two kids that stand out, but just come away knowing we had solid performances from five or six people. A balanced attack — that’s what we’re going after.”
In total, the Trappers played six scrimmages over the course of the fall semester, winning five. Though NWC doesn’t have any more exhibitions on the fall schedule, the team will be in the gym for the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, when student-athletes will go home for the remainder of 2020.
Some programs shut down fall training due to COVID-19, but that was never an issue at Northwest. As a result, the Trappers were able to develop a team chemistry while honing in on the fundamentals of the sport.
“We’re night and day better than we were. That typically happens, but that was even more exaggerated this year because of COVID,” Keister said. “We were very lucky to avoid the COVID shutdown, and that’s a big kudos to our school and the protocols we put in place. They’re meshing well, and every skill is better.”
Once practice ends in a couple of weeks, players will go their separate ways for about a month, and it will be up to them to stay disciplined and continue preparing for the 2021 season.
“They’ve all set up places to work out and get reps back home, so it should be good and we should be ready,” Keister said.