Team tops Casper in fiveThe Northwest College Trapper volleyball team split a pair of matches this past week. The team took down Casper College in a rematch of last year's Region IX North title game 25-22, 22-25, 25-15, 20-25, 15-13 before falling to fourth-ranked Western Wyoming in straight games 25-23, 25-18, 25-21. The results leave the Trappers in third place in the Region IX North standings behind Western Wyoming and fellow national top-10 performer Laramie County Community College and just one game in front of a horde of challengers.

“We played very inconsistent,” Trapper volleyball coach Flavia Siqueira said of her team's performance in the two matches. “One moment we'd be really high and excited, and then we'd just go flat and lose that energy.”

Part of the inconsistency was almost certainly caused by the Trappers' injury situation. The team played its match against Casper with sophomore hitters Mayara Conilho and Randi McInerney both in street clothes due to knee injuries. McInerney was back on the floor for Saturday's showdown against Western, but clearly was moving at far less than 100 percent as she finished with four kills and two blocks.

Brazilian freshman Gabriella Fabri has been playing the entire season with a torn meniscus.

“It's frustrating,” Siqueira said of the injuries. “We're having to use everybody and it has limited what we're able to do. Randi went out there (against Western) and did what she could.”

The Trappers' coach described McInerney's injury as a partial ACL tear.

Freshman Sandrina Hunsel, one of the few Trapper front-row players to dodge the injury bug this autumn, certainly was not limited. The 6'2” hitter from Suriname finished with 28 kills between the two matches. Jessica Denney added 10 kills against Casper while teammate Danielle York finished with 11 kills against Western Wyoming.

Hunsel also finished with 13 blocks between the two opponents. Fabri added another 13 blocks as the pair often formed a formidable side-by-side wall along the net.

Serving was also a problem for the Trappers, especially in their Saturday game against Western Wyoming. Northwest was guilty of 19 service violations over the weekend, a stat that did not sit well with the Trappers' head coach.

“We can't have those kind of mental mistakes,” said Siqueira, who watched six of those service errors take place in the third game against Western Wyoming alone. “Our goal is for every error, we get an ace. We didn't come close to that.”

The Trappers finished with just six ace serves between the two matches.