Despite injuries starting to pile up in the early season for the Trapper volleyball team, Northwest walked away from the Big Sky Challenge in Montana with a 3-1 record.

The weekend in Butte started with a matchup against North Idaho College on Friday where the Trappers got off to a strong first set.

Northwest began the first set with 13 kills while only committing one error en route to a 25-11 victory.

“We put what we thought our starting lineup would be out there for that first set and they took care of business,” Trapper volleyball coach Scott Keister said. 

Unfortunately for the Trappers, an injury forced Northwest to regroup, leading to struggles in sets two and three where the Trappers lost 25-12 and 25-23.

Towards the end of the third set and into the fourth set the Trappers started finding a new groove after struggling to find an identity adjusting the lineup following the injury.

Despite finding a new groove and finishing with 14 kills to two errors, the Trappers were unable to overcome the momentum of Northern Idaho and dropped the fourth set 25-22 and the match 3-1.

“By the time we figured it out the match was gone, we battled to end it,” Keister said.

Following the loss on Friday morning, the Trappers had the afternoon to recover before matching up with Wallace State Community College-Hanceville, Alabama.

Northwest started the match slowly, losing the first set 25-20.

The Trappers rebounded from there, winning the next three sets 25-20, 25-15 and 25-18 to claim their first victory of the season.

“We bounced back that night, and Mia [Sorensen] stepped into that spot and did very well on the outside,” Keister said.

The first victory boosted the Trappers confidence heading into the third match of the weekend on Saturday morning, coming up against Dawson Community College.

Northwest won the first two sets against Dawson in dominating fashion, defeating Dawson 25-15 and 25-10 to take the early lead.

The third set presented problems as the Trappers began to commit more errors, but Northwest was able to walk away with a 25-22 third set victory — completing the sweep over Dawson.

Finishing out the weekend the Trappers matched up with the Carroll College junior varsity team.

Northwest started strong and never looked back, sweeping the Carroll College JV 25-17, 25-15 and 25-12 to finish the weekend on a three match winning streak.

“We are hurting right now,” Keister said. “We are down to nine (healthy players), we are just trying to figure it out at this point.”

One concern Keister had going into the first weekend was serving, but was pleasantly surprised at the results from the team.

Despite the amount of aces the team got on serves, Keister knows there is still room for improvement going forward.

Northwest returns home this weekend to kick off the home schedule with the Trapper Invitational.

The Trappers will match up again with Wallace State Thursday (tonight) at 7 p.m. to start the weekend.

They then play the Carroll College JV on Friday at 1 p.m. followed by a night game against Dawson at 7 p.m.

Northwest wraps up the weekend on Saturday evening by playing the Rocky Mountain JV at 5 p.m.

“Hopefully we stay healthy through this weekend,” Keister said.