Wrapping up a five-game road trip the Northwest College volleyball team fell in both contests, nearly completing a comeback against Gillette College in a 3-2 loss on Friday, before being swept by Casper College 3-0 on Saturday.

GILLETTE COLLEGE 3, NORTHWEST 2

(25-16, 25-20, 14-25, 24-26, 15-12)

Beginning the second half of conference play, the Trappers (10-14 overall, 2-5 Region IX North) took on the Pronghorns (14-9 overall, 3-4 Region IX North)  looking to complete the season sweep.

The hosts came out with a dominant first hitting set, as the Pronghorns hit .440 as a team and had 15 kills to earn a convincing 25-16 win.

Gillette carried that momentum from the first into the second, as the Pronghorns held off the Trappers to earn a 25-20 win and take the 2-0 lead.

Heading into the fourth set the Trappers needed a response before the hosts completed the sweep, and coach Nicole Buck got just that.

“I was really proud of the way they responded,” she said. “I just remember coming into that third set and I didn’t say much other than to say ‘there’s a reason that they made the best of five. So let’s change some things.’ I was really proud of the way they did it. We didn’t just win that third set, we dominated that third set.”

Northwest hit .423 as a team and held Gillette to a negative percentage, as the Trappers cruised to a 25-14 win.

The Trappers carried just enough momentum into the fourth set to claim another win, as they held on late for a 26-24 win to force a decisive fifth set.

“I think at some point in the match we switched to a 5-1 (offense), which is always a hard decision for me to make because any of our hitting options in the 6-2 (offense) on the right side are good, same with our setters,” Buck said. “It’s always hard for me to switch to the 5-1. But the reasoning behind it was about consistency and stability, and just recognizing that we maybe needed to save some of those subs in other spots that we don’t normally.”

Gillette took the lead early in the final set and never allowed the Trappers to take the lead late, as the Pronghorns won four of the final five points after the match was tied 11-11 to win 15-12.

Jaylin Mills led with 12 kills, just ahead of McKinlee Scammon and Torey Parker who had 10 each.

Jaylie Critchfield had 37 assists, Mills led with 15 digs, just ahead of Critchfield and Scammon with 12 each.

Brakkin Larsen and Torey Parker led the way with two blocks each, while Mills led with three aces.

CASPER COLLEGE 3, NORTHWEST 0

(25-20, 25-16, 25-16)

On Saturday the Trappers took on the top team in the conference, and the lone unbeaten remaining in Region IX North play in the Thunderbirds (15-13 overall, 7-0 Region IX North).

In the opening set the Trappers had their best hitting set of the day, but the Thunderbirds pulled away late for the 25-20 win.

From that point forward the Trappers battled for every point but were unable to find the momentum-swinging kill, as the hosts won the next two sets 25-16 to complete the sweep.

“When you play a team that is that skilled and that powerful, you get better in ways that you can’t in practice,” Buck said. “You’re exposed to things that you don’t normally see. It just reinforces things that we need to work on, and it gives us good experience that we need in order to improve … One of the things that the score doesn’t reflect in that match is how hard fought a lot of those points were. We would just battle, and just couldn’t quite finish it because they had somebody that could hit right over our heads eventually.”

Parker led with six kills, Critchfield led with 13 assists and nine digs, Saige Kidd led with 1.5 blocks and Ellee Summers paced the Trappers with four aces.

HOME STRETCH ENDS SEASON

After the five game road swing the Trappers return home to end the season, hosting three games in six days.

“I really consider ourselves so lucky to be able to just finish here at home and finish in front of our home crowd,” Buck said. “We’re really excited.”

Northwest starts with a pair of opponents from the southwest portion of Wyoming, starting with Eastern Wyoming College (8-16 overall, 3-3 Region IX North) at 6 p.m. on Friday.

“We’ve done a lot of film study, a lot of preparation, but our biggest thing is just gonna be controlling our service game,” Buck said. “If we stay aggressive and fast, and we’re able to put some plays together, I think it’ll be a really fun match.”

The Trappers then take on Laramie County Community College (3-20 overall, 1-5 Region IX North) at 2 p.m. on Saturday, and Central Wyoming College (5-16 overall, 4-3 Region IX North) at 6 p.m. on Wednesday to end the regular season.

As things stand the Trappers are currently in fifth in the region, and need to move up to the top four to advance to the conference tournament in November.

“If I’m guessing, we have to win these three to make it, or everything else has to go really wrong for us to make it,” Buck said. “The goal obviously is to make it to regionals, but what I talked about against Casper, the ultimate goal is to just go and compete well, compete to the best of our ability, and I think if we really do that, we’ll be fine.”