TRAPPER VOLLEYBALL STUMBLES IN UTAH

BY SETH ROMSA TRIBUNE SPORTS WRITER
Courtesy of the Powell Tribune

One of the longest road trips of the season resulted in one of the more difficult weekends for the Northwest College volleyball team, finishing 0-4 at the Utah State University Eastern Invitational on Friday and Saturday in Price, Utah.     

SOUTHERN NEVADA 3, NORTHWEST 0
Kicking off the weekend on Friday, the Trappers (5-8) came up against the College of Southern Nevada Lady Coyotes (2-5).

"The first day we did not play well," coach Scott Keister said. "We didn't hit well, we didn't pass well, we didn't serve well, we didn't do anything well."

Northwest dropped the first set 25-18, and did not recover in the second or third set losing 25-17 and 25-12.

The Trappers were unable to hit over .100 in any of the sets, including a negative .033 hitting percentage in the second set — committing 22 errors to 27 kills in the match.

Kamri Hutchings finished with 23 assists for the Trappers.    

PIMA CC 3, NORTHWEST 1
Continuing with play on Friday, the Trappers took on Pima Community College (5-6) out of Tucson, Arizona.

The Aztecs came out immediately and took a 2-0 lead on the Trappers with 25-20 and 25-17 wins.

The best hitting set of the day for the Trappers came in the third set, hitting .258 as a team and earning a 25-19 win to force a fourth set.

Unfortunately for Northwest, a difficult fourth set saw the Trappers finish with a negative hitting percentage once again and they lost 25-14.

"I thought we matched up really well with both teams," Keister said. "We could have very easily won had we played well. CSN was good and Pima was good, but CSN just killed us with one girl."

Split setting duties saw Kamryn Jenkins lead with 14 assists and Kamri Hutchings with 11 while Ellie Thomas led with 13 digs and Kennedy Oman led with three blocks.    

EASTERN ARIZONA 3, NORTHWEST 0
After regrouping Friday night, the Trappers came out on Saturday to take on two ranked opponents, starting with No. 13 Eastern Arizona College (10-5).

Northwest came out with a renewed focus despite still not playing at its best, and battled with the Monsters.

Each set was tight throughout, with the two teams battling each other into the early 20s in each set.

Unfortunately for Northwest, Eastern Arizona came out on top each time — 25-21, 25-22 and 25-21 to sweep the Trappers.

"We were tight with them the whole way point for point," Keister said. "In the third we were up 21-17, but those last 5-6 points in each set were errors so we very easily could have had that one."

Elsa Clark led the Trappers with 11 digs and eight kills, while Hutchings had 15 assists and Jenkins 13.   

USU EASTERN 3, NORTHWEST 1
The final match of the weekend matched the Trappers up with the hosts, No. 14-ranked USU Eastern (8-5).

"USU Eastern had a couple of tough losses to some good teams in Florida so it dropped their ranking a little bit. They are a legit top 10 team," Keister said.

Northwest came out and battled over the first two sets, losing the first 25-16 before being the only team to take a set off the hosts all weekend with a 25-19 second set victory.

In the final two sets the hosts took advantage of a pair of negative hitting percentages by the Trappers, winning comfortably 25-14 and 25-15.

"Holy crap that is a big block, and they are good," Keister said. "That was a fun match even though we lost, we came out of there going 'OK, we are going in the right direction.'"

Keister said that the team did a sports psychology session before the match, which helped put certain things into perspective that allowed the Trappers to play better to finish the weekend.

Taylor Wilson led with nine kills for the Trappers, while Thomas led the way with 23 digs.   

MONTANA SWING
Northwest started another road trip on Wednesday, heading into Montana to take on the University of Providence JV in a doubleheader in Great Falls.