Beating the heat is supposed to be easy for volleyball players in an air-conditioned gym, but the Trapper volleyball team has seen difficulties off the court early in the season while a mostly new team adjusts to life in Powell.

The NWC team hit the court on Aug. 1, and has not looked back early in the preseason.

A talented roster has faced its own challenges in the first week of action, no air-conditioning in the dorms, most players learning to play with new teammates and some experiencing the first time living away from home.

“More and more it seems like the mental health side of things is coming into play,” coach Scott Keister said. “With a large group of freshmen you are always concerned about homesickness, them being on their own for their first time and there is a lot of stress and anxiety with that.”

He said that alongside that, the team has been hard at work on the court trying to learn the different callouts and adjusting to each other’s style of play during the first week of practice.

“It takes time,” Keister said.

He said he hopes the team gets to a point where the honeymoon phase is over, and the team breaks down walls in order to connect on a more personal level.

This year, Keister arranged a more difficult schedule throughout the year, including eight matches against top-20 teams from last season.

He said that with this team, his hope is to continue improving throughout the season, especially in the early stages of the campaign in order to be ready for the conference schedule once it arrives.

He believes the tough schedule will allow Northwest to come back and fine tune things after each match to improve moving forward.

“I am excited for our schedule,” Keister said. “We could not win a match, but as long as we are getting better I am OK with that right now to get us ready for conference.”

Early in practices, Keister said that the players with returning experience in Sidney Parker, Brooke Palmer and Emma Hanson have helped show strong leadership for the team alongside redshirt returners Elsa Clark and Hailey Marshall.

Alongside those returners, the Trappers added a transfer student in Megan Pannell, who Keister said has shown great maturity with the young team.

“She (Pannell) is confident with herself, while everyone else is trying to figure out who they are,” Keister said.

He hopes that Pannell will show great leadership and maturity throughout the season while bringing in championship experience, as Pannell advanced with Snow College to the NJCAA National Championships the two previous seasons and advanced to the championship game in 2020.

The Trappers will have additional time in order to find a rhythm and build off each other because the team does not have its first match of the season until Friday, Aug. 19, at 9 a.m. against North Idaho College in the Big Sky Challenge.

The first home action for the Trappers will be the following week on Thursday, Aug. 25, when the Trapper Invitational kicks off.