Now is not the time to be looking back, according to Allison Rogers, the newly named interim head coach of Northwest Missouri State’s volleyball team.

Not with a big match against geographic rival Missouri Western looming tonight.

Rogers was promoted from her assistant coaching position on Tuesday upon the resignation of Anna Tool. Tool, in her fourth season, learned last week her contract wouldn’t be renewed for 2010.

For a week now, change and distraction have been the constants in the volleyball program. Rogers said her team has proven good at managing both.

“You can do one of two things — you can dwell on it or you can take it for what it is and move forward,” Rogers said. “I think focusing on the games we have left is the most important thing to do. I think we’ve done a great job of that.”

Northwest (10-13 overall, 1-6 MIAA) faces a struggling Missouri Western team tonight that has set a goal of knocking off the remaining lower-tier MIAA teams in an effort to salvage a disappointing season. To do so, however, the Griffons will have to get past both a determined Northwest team and a large hometown crowd for the third annual “Pink Out” game.

Northwest hopes to break the attendance record, set at last year’s event. Fans are being asked to wear pink in recognition of breast cancer awareness month. A limited number of pink T-shirts and pink poms are being made available to fans. In addition, the annual “Midnight Madness” basketball tip-off event will follow the volleyball match.

“The environment is going to be great,” Rogers said. “I expect the girls to come out on fire and do big things. We’ve been prepping for them all week. All they can do now is go out and show what they’ve learned and what they’ve accomplished.”

Rogers is in her second season of coaching in the Bearcat program. She played for the Bearcats from 2002-06. Her average of 3.06 kills per game ranks fifth in program history.

Rogers began her coaching career at Craig High School while also serving as an elementary and secondary school counselor during the 2007-08 academic year.

Long-time student

Football coach Mel Tjeerdsma likes to joke that Emporia State defensive coordinator Kenny Gordon was the only junior-college transfer he recruited who needed six years to finish his education.

At least it was an advanced degree.

“I have great respect for him,” Tjeerdsma said of his former player, student coach and graduate assistant, who will help lead the Hornets against the Bearcats on Saturday in Emporia, Kan. “So many of those guys, when they transfer in, just don’t have many hours that really count toward a degree. He was one of those guys.”

But Gordon stuck around, playing for two years and earning all-conference honors as a senior while the Bearcats turned around their program in 1996. He stuck around for two more years as a student coach, then decided to get his masters.

“We were thrilled to keep him,” Tjeerdsma said. “He’s (still) almost part of our coaching staff.”

Avoiding the trap

The best thing Tjeerdsma noted about last Saturday’s victory against Truman State was not the victory as much as the team’s attitude.

After all, following a huge win over Missouri Western the week before, the Bearcats could have taken cellar-dwelling Truman lightly.

“It’s a good sign that they listened and they learned, because we went through that a little bit with Omaha after the Arrowhead game,” Tjeerdsma said. “They didn’t let that happen again. It would have been a lot easier to fall in that trap this past week.”

Injury report

Senior defensive end Sean Paddock underwent minor surgery on Monday to insert a screw in the top of his injured foot. Paddock was injured in the first half of the game two Saturdays ago at Missouri Western, but the surgery appeared to be successful.

“Everything looks really good,” Tjeerdsma said. “We might see him in a week or two. They’re very hopeful he’ll be ready for the Central Missouri game (Nov. 7).”

Two other regulars — defensive back E.J. Hawkins and quarterback Blake Bolles — are nursing sprained ankles. Bolles practiced Thursday afternoon, but Hawkins is about a day behind his teammate in his recovery. Tjeerdsma said both are likely to play on Saturday at Emporia.

In addition, offensive lineman Ross Hastert is nursing a hand injury but practiced Tuesday and is expected to play Saturday.

Running for their goals

When the men’s and women’s cross country teams placed third and sixth, respectively, in the 25-team Gibson Family Invitational, they met two of the three goals they had set for themselves, according to coach Scott Lorek.

Both teams wanted to defeat Bellarmine — a ranked team in the Great Lakes Region — and they succeeded. The men beat Bellarmine by more than 50 points, while the women passed the test by two points.

In addition, the men set their sites on defeating Division I Purdue, but missed that goal. The Boilermakers finished second, just six points ahead of the Bearcats in the meet in Terre Haute, Ind.

The teams will be off this week but training for the MIAA Championships, to be held Oct. 24 in Emporia, Kan.