TRAPPER VOLLEYBALL ENDS ON A HIGH

BY SETH ROMSA TRIBUNE SPORTS WRITER
Courtesy of the Powell Tribune

The Northwest College volleyball team finished the season on a high despite being swept by Central Wyoming College on Wednesday, returning home Friday to earn a 3-1 win over Western Wyoming Community College.     

CENTRAL WYOMING 3, NORTHWEST 0
(25-16, 25-22, 26-24)
In their final road game of the season the Trappers (10-15 overall, 2-10 Region IX North) made the trip to Riverton to face off with the Rustlers (15-16 overall, 9-3 Region IX North) on Wednesday, Oct. 29.
The hosts came out and established an advantage from the start, taking the first set with a 25-16 win.
"Central was one of those teams that every time I saw them they just looked like they were getting better and better every week," coach Nicole Buck said. 
The Trappers kept things closer in the second set, but strong hitting helped the hosts pull ahead for a 25-22 win.
Another close set followed in the third, but the Rustlers once again just edged out the Trappers for the 26-24 win to complete the sweep.
"I was proud of the way our team handled it. It's the kind of team that you step onto the court and know that you're going to get better just playing against them," Buck said. "It was really important (to keep it close), if nothing else, just for the girls' confidence. Just to know they can fight and to know that they can take steps forward, which was our whole goal this season."
She said she was pleased to see the players take a set to extra points.
"To show that we have that kind of fight was just a really good boost to kind of finish the season with and teach these girls that we can keep fighting and keep training and come back stronger next year," she said.
McKinlee Scammon led with nine kills, Aidann Mottishaw had 18 assists, Shilah Arnold had 21 digs and Rylee Arnold added 11.
Ellianna Baumstarck and Brakkin Larsen tied for the team lead with two blocks each, and Shilah Arnold had the only two aces for the Trappers.

NORTHWEST 3, WESTERN WYOMING 1
(19-25, 25-19, 25-19, 25-19)
Wrapping up the season at home the Trappers matched welcomed in the Mustangs (2-28 overall, 0-12 Region IX North) on Friday.
The Mustangs came out strong and took the lead 9-6 and forced a Northwest timeout, and carried that early momentum to build an 18-12 advantage and force a second Trapper timeout.
The visitors led by as many as 10 at 23-13, before a late rally by the Trappers made the final deficit 25-19.
Northwest started stronger in the second set, building an early lead and forcing a Western timeout after a Scammon kill at 7-3.
Building on that early advantage helped the Trappers grow their advantage to 17-8, holding off any challenges from the visitors.
Northwest finished the second set with a 25-19 win to tie the sets at one each.
In the third set Western came out and built an early advantage, earning a 10-6 lead after a ball was tipped out by the Trappers and forcing a timeout by the hosts.
Northwest fought back and cut the lead down to 16-14, and eventually tied it at 17 on a Baumstarck block and took the lead on a Trinity Frank ace.
The Trappers made it a 20-17 lead on a Baumstarck kill to force a timeout from the visitors, and eventually finished with a 25-19 win.
Western led early in the fourth set, but the Trappers rallied and held an 11-10 lead to force a timeout.
Northwest made it 19-13 before finishing with a 25-19 win to earn the 3-1 victory.
"It was a great way to end. It's hard when you don't achieve all the goals that you set out to achieve, but very few teams get to actually finish their season on a win," Buck said. "It was really fun to just be able to focus on that positive note … Saying goodbye to our sophomores in a really cool way, because I felt like each of them had a fantastic game in their own right, and that even meant that some of our freshmen had to sacrifice for those sophomores to have those moments. I was really proud of the team for giving that to them. But it also just set up our returners for next year to end on a positive note and carry that into the new season."
Baumstarck led with 10 kills and seven blocks, all solo.
Rylee Arnold had 21 assists and Mottishaw added 14.
Shilah Arnold had 14 digs, just ahead of Lexie Arnold and Scammon with 12 digs while Rylee Arnold added 10.
Mottishaw led with four aces.    

OFFSEASON BEGINS
The Trappers now head into the offseason after not advancing to the postseason for a third consecutive year, looking forward after a first year under Buck at the helm.
"There were a lot of tough moments but there were a lot of great ones as well," she said. "I've said a few times throughout the season, just to understand we were building a foundation and that might take some sacrifice, and there might be hard moments with that. I thought the girls took it seriously, and they really did start to build a great foundation that can set us up for the future."
The Trappers will say goodbye to four sophomores in Baumstarck, Mottishaw, Frank and Taylee Carlson, with 11 players eligible to return for next year's team.
"I am expecting to take a big step forward, just because these sophomores did such a good job at teaching these freshmen the foundations on which we want to build, and now we get the entire spring to do that," Buck said. "So I'm just expecting this group that all plans to come back, to hit the weight room and hit the gym. We're going to be working on a lot of things while also recruiting to help take our team to the next level."      

CENTRAL WYOMING 3, NORTHWEST 0
(25-16, 25-22, 26-24)
Total blocks then solo blocks in ()
Kills — McKinlee Scammon 9, Lexie Arnold 8, Ellianna Baumstarck 6, Taylee Carlson 6, Eva Murray 3, Brakkin Larsen 3, Aidann Mottishaw 1
Assists — Aidann Mottishaw 18, Rylee Arnold 8, Shilah Arnold 6, Brakkin Larsen 2, Ellianna Baumstarck 1
Digs — Shilah Arnold 21, Rylee Arnold 11, Lexie Arnold 8, Aidann Mottishaw 5, McKinlee Scammon 2, Brakkin Larsen 2, Taylee Carlson 2, Eva Murray 1, Ellianna Baumstarck 1
Blocks — Ellianna Baumstarck 2, Brakkin Larsen 2, Eva Murray 1.5, Taylee Carlson 1, Lexie Arnold .5
Aces — Shilah Arnold 2      

NORTHWEST 3, WESTERN WYOMING 1
(19-25, 25-19, 25-19, 25-19)
Kills — Ellianna Baumstarck 10, Aidann Mottishaw 9, Taylee Carlson 9, Lexie Arnold 6, McKinlee Scammon 6, Eva Murray 3, Natalee Hayder 2, Brakkin Larsen 1
Assists — Rylee Arnold 21, Aidann Mottishaw 14, Trinity Frank 1, Lexie Arnold 1, Shilah Arnold 1, Taylee Carlson 1
Digs — Shilah Arnold 14, Lexie Arnold 12, McKinlee Scammon 12, Rylee Arnold 10, Aidann Mottishaw 5, Trinity Frank 4, Ellianna Baumstarck 2, Eva Murray 1, Vinaya Vanderploeg 1, Taylee Carlson 1
Blocks — Ellianna Baumstarck 7 (7), Eva Murray 2 (2), Taylee Carlson 2 (2), Aidann Mottishaw 1 (1)
Aces — Aidann Mottishaw 4, Trinity Frank 1, Lexie Arnold 1, McKinlee Scammon 1