"They're annoying."

Based on first impressions coming from a coaching stint at Eastern Washington University, that's what first-year North Idaho College volleyball coach Miles Kydd thought of players from the junior college level.

That was then.

This is now.

"When I started here, the first thing I said to them was, 'you know what I think of junior college players? They're annoying,'" Kydd said. "We were getting students at Eastern that were just bad students and you look at their transcripts and wonder, 'Oh my gosh, how am I going to get them into school.' They hadn't trained, or weight-lifted, so their training background wasn't great. The first year after coming from a junior college to Division I, it was like pulling teeth sometimes."

Not that his current group is all that bad, right?

"It was probably just the kids we were getting because this group is doing very well in school," Kydd said. "We don't train as much because I don't like to lift after practice. There's some good athletes here and some that should be playing Division I, but just got overlooked like Russia (Robinson), Leeta (Grap) and Anyssa (Matheson). The level of talent of those kids, Division I coaches need to spend a little more time with those kids and not do what I did just writing kids off because they're from a junior college."

"I really like having Miles as a coach," said Grap, a sophomore outside hitter. "He's really easy to play for as a coach. He tells us what to do and we pretty much do it. He's great to play for."

Kydd took over as coach at Eastern in 2008 after serving as an assistant the previous four years. Kydd was named the NIC coach following last season after Kandice Gregorak resigned and moved to Missoula to spend more time with her family.

"There's probably a little more depth in the Big Sky (Conference) obviously," Kydd said. "There's good players here, but when you go to scout, there's not certain things you see, but if you know you can go out and do certain things, you'll be fine, whereas in the Big Sky, you have to do those things, but the other players can hurt you too. I think it's easier to game plan here, because there's not the depth and if you take away a certain player, there goes to your advantage."

After starting conference play 5-4, with two losses to Salt Lake and one to Southern Idaho and Snow College each, NIC bounced back - beating the College of Southern Idaho in the Region 18 semifinals to qualify for the NJCAA tournament in Casper, Wyo., which starts Thursday.

"I think it's just been a learning curve to the style of volleyball we want to play," Kydd said of the team's improved play. "People were learning what their roles were within the team and started to feel more comfortable in what was expected of them."

NIC started the season 7-5, with losses coming to Western Nebraska twice, Western Wyoming, Blinn College and Seward County. Of those, Blinn and Western Nebraska also advanced to nationals.

"I thought we had a decent preseason," Kydd said. "The teams in our conference were also playing in those tournaments, but I really wasn't watching what they were doing, so I didn't realize how good our conference was going to be."

Salt Lake Community College (22-6), which beat NIC in the Region 18 title match, is the No. 6 seed at nationals, with NIC (16-11) the No. 9 seed.

"When we went to CSI in conference, I honestly felt like we were going to win," Kydd said. "Us losing that match didn't change how I felt about our team. Salt Lake has been really steady all year and made less errors. Honestly, I think we peaked at the right time. Nothing really changed from the start of the season, people just understood what their job was a little more."

NIC opens the tournament against No. 8 seed Arizona Western (19-4) on Thursday.

Sophomore Anyssa Matheson, who played her freshman season at Salt Lake, is third on the team with 180 kills this season for NIC.

"I wanted the chance to come home and play in front of my family and friends," Matheson said. "It was kind of a luck of the draw and last minute because I was planning on going to Oklahoma and then (NIC assistant coach) Kelsey (Stanley) called me and told me I could come here, so I said OK."

The biggest difference between the two national-bound teams was simple according to Matheson - conditioning.

"We're more of a close-knit team than last year," Matheson said. "We conditioned way too much and a lot more than we do now. It just didn't have a family feel to it. Getting here, Miles definitely wants each and every one of us to get better at everything and do good."

Under Gregorak, NIC finished ninth at nationals in 2012, and eighth in 2011.

"I think the biggest difference is that we've got variety in the offense this year," sophomore libero Russia Robinson said. "Last year, we relied a lot on Yang Yang and Kaitlyn (Molloy) and they both played all the way around. This year, we've got outside hitters and Anyssa on the back side. We can still run our middles, but our other hitters are really, really good."

Molloy currently is playing at Division II Midwestern State in Wichita Falls, Texas and Yang is at NAIA Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Mont.

"Kandice was pretty defensive based and liked to work on the defense," Robinson said. "Miles has specialized with the hitters this year. I think the fact we've got more (hitters) is the biggest reason why we've been so offensive based."

"With Kandice, we had a lot of defense that was based off our middles," Grap said. "This year, it's more mixed evenly and balanced, so everyone has a chance to put the ball away."

The more familiar they've gotten with each other, the better they've played this season, something that Kydd hopes will pay off at nationals.

"We've got to just show up and play," Kydd said. "Because a lot of the time, in a tournament setting, the first time you see a team is when you're playing them. We've got to do a good job on our side, because we're not going to know much on their side."

NJCAA VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT

at Casper Events Center

Casper, Wyo.

Times PST

Thursday

Match 1 - No. 3 Western Nebraska (37-3) vs. No. 14 Hutchinson (Kan.) (27-10), 8 a.m.

Match 2 - No. 6 Salt Lake (22-6) vs. No. 11 Hill College (Texas) (28-7), 8 a.m.

Match 3 - No. 7 Central Florida (26-12) vs. No. 10 Northwest (Wyo.) (24-11), 10

Match 4 - No. 2 Tyler College (Texas) (31-4) vs. No. 15 Wallace State (Ala.) (30-15), 10

Match 5 - No. 1 Blinn College (Fla.) (35-3) vs. No. 16 Gadsden State (Ala.) (27-7), noon

Match 6 - No. 8 Arizona Western (19-4) vs. No. 9 North Idaho College (16-11), noon

Match 7 - No. 5 Hillsborough (Fla.) (38-4) vs. No. 12 Missouri State-West Plains (23-12), 2 p.m.

Match 8 - No. 4 Iowa Western (42-3) vs. No. 13 New Mexico Military Institute (23-16), 2

Match 9 - Winner Match 1 vs. Winner Match 2, 4:30

Match 10 - Winner Match 3 vs. Winner Match 4, 4:30

Match 11 - Winner Match 5 vs. Winner Match 6, 6:30

Match 12 - Winner Match 7 vs. Winner Match 8, 6:30

Friday

Match 13 - Loser Match 1 vs. Loser Match 2, 9 a.m. (loser out)

Match 14 - Loser Match 3 vs. Loser Match 4, 9 (loser out)

Match 15 - Loser Match 5 vs. Loser Match 6, 11 (loser out)

Match 16 - Loser Match 7 vs. Loser Match 8, 11 (loser out)

Match 17 - Winner Match 9 vs. Winner Match 10, 1:30 p.m.

Match 18 - Winner Match 11 vs. Winner Match 12, 1:30

Match 19 - Winner Match 13 vs. Winner Match 14, 3:30

Match 20 - Winner Match 15 vs. Winner Match 16, 3:30

Match 21 - Winner Match 9 vs. Winner Match 10, 5:30 (semifinal)

Match 22 - Winner Match 11 vs. Winner Match 12, 5:30 (semifinal)

Saturday

Match 23 - Winner Match 19 vs. Winner Match 20, 9 a.m. (ninth-10th place match)

Match 24 - Loser Match 17 vs. Loser Match 18, 11 (seventh-eighth place match)

Match 25 - Winner Match 17 vs. Winner Match 18, 1 p.m. (fifth-sixth place match)

Match 26 - Loser Match 21 vs. Loser Match 22, 3:30 (third-fourth place match)

Match 27 - Winner Match 21 vs. Winner Match 22, 5:30 (national championship match)