by Corey Atkinson, Fort McMurray Today

Thursday Feb. 25, 2010: The Keyano College Huskies women's volleyball team is preparing for this weekend like they would any other.  Except this is the weekend they go to provincials for only the second time in team history.

The team is on a high after a weekend sweep of the SAIT Trojans in the playoff qualification weekend last weekend. "I think that we are carrying a lot of momentum from our past few matches," women's coach Melissa Laluk said. "We prepared a lot for SAIT, and I think the girls executed the game plan very well and they were motivated (by) last year's loss."

The question now becomes whether they can carry that momentum beyond that weekend and into this weekend at Grant MacEwan University.  "I think they're all very proud of what they've accomplished right now, but definitely they know that getting to provincials wasn't the end line," Laluk said. "I think confidence is the biggest difference when you enter into provincials."

And confidence is what the Huskies have after going on a four-game winning streak, including the last weekend of the regular season against Lethbridge College.  "It is a big deal for us, but for myself I'm kind of just approaching it as if it were any other weekend," veteran fourth year libero Kim Blatchford said. "We're going to go through the same

“We're going to get there, we're going to have a practice, we're going to have a pre-game meal, we're going to arrive at the same as we'd play a normal Friday game. So we'll just go at it as if it were a normal game."

Competition-wise, the SAIT weekend had one level of heat but the provincials will see a totally different one, starting with Mount Royal University, ranked No. 5 in Canada in the latest CCAA rankings. Second-ranked Red Deer College and the ninth-ranked host MacEwan Griffins are also in the eight-team tournament.  "With the goal in mind that we're not just happy to be there, the girls are motivated to perform at their very best," Laluk said.

"We're preparing for our first match … and it's going to be our hardest matchup. From there, whomever we meet along the way we'll just do our best. But I think at the end, provincials is who plays the best. Play your game, and if you play your game, you'll see if you win."

They don't have a lot of history against the Mount Royal Cougars, having not played them yet in the regular season or in any tournaments this year, but do have some experience watching them on tape.  "We know that they're a big team that really like their outsides," Blatchford said. "So we're just going to cover lots and prepare our blocks and our digging for the outside wall."

The tournament continues until Sunday.