The Northwest College Trapper volleyball team fell to Missouri State-West Plains in opening-round action at the 2009 NJCAA national tournament, but not before making sure the Grizzlies knew they were in a fight.
No. 8 West Plains, which bested NWC by a 25-15, 25-15, 25-17 count in early October, was blindsided out of the gate. The Trappers scored 15 of the first 18 points tallied in the national tournament to grab a commanding lead in game 1. West Plains recovered from the initial shock to fight to within 18-13, but the Trappers cruised home with the win.
The Grizzlies and Trappers fought to 11-11 ties in both games two and three. In both cases, West Plains was able to break away from those mid-game deadlocks to build five point leads before finishing with 25-22 wins on both occasions.
Game 4 saw the Trappers maintain early momentum and build an 11-7 lead, only to watch it evaporate in a 6-1 Grizzly run. After a 14-14 tie, Northwest College extended to a 20-15 lead and appeared on the verge of forcing a fifth-game tiebreak after reaching 22-18.
West Plains found one last momentum surge, scoring seven of the final eight points to steal a 25-23 win and send the Trappers to the elimination half of the tournament with an 18-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-23 win.
Northwest College will play Temple College (22-22) at 9 a.m. mountain time on Friday in a loser-out game. Temple, a school of approximately 5,200 students, located in Temple, Texas, fell 25-19, 21-25, 25-16, 23-25, 15-8 to No. 5 Iowa Western in its first-round contest.
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