A long, difficult match against the Rocky Mountain JV on Oct. 4 led to a record-breaking performance for freshman libero Ellie Thomas, when she finished with a Northwest College record 34 digs against the Battlin’ Bears.

“Honestly I was just trying to get every ball up,” Thomas said. “We were struggling to find the court coming in, so I was just sitting in the back doing my job of getting every single ball up and giving every single opportunity to the setters and to the hitters.”

She broke the record of 33 that was held in a three-way tie by Paige Weimer last year, Katie Burnett in 2012 and Allyson Mahon, who set the initial record in 2012.

Thomas has made a fast transition to the college game, coming from Gillette after graduating from Thunder Basin High School in the spring.

“It is kind of a faster pace which I love,” Thomas said. “It is so much fun to be able to play at that faster pace that you want to play at. I feel like I have gone out every time and tried to play the pace I played in high school and continued it here.”

She said that her teammates push her every day in practice to improve, with hitters trying to hit it as hard as they can and place it in different areas on the court to make her job more difficult.

Those difficult practices alongside tough competition this season has Thomas hoping to continue improving heading into the final weeks of the regular season.

“I just want to play my heart out honestly,” Thomas said. “Being a freshman at a junior college you think you have a lot of time to adjust, but your next season is your last season so it is really just going out and playing.”