Women's Volleyball Huskies playoff path complicated by home losses to Wolves

It had certainly been a while since the Keyano Huskies Women’s Volleyball team were on the receiving side of a fifth-set heartbreak, but that’s exactly the lesson they got twice this past weekend at the Syncrude Sport & Wellness Centre.  

With it, the all too familiar lesson that while the Huskies could proudly celebrate their achievements to date, there’s still a long road to go in the season as the Northwestern Polytechnic Wolves taught them.  

“A real up and down,” Head Coach Tommy Sloan said of the two losses. “There were definitely moments where we were playing the type of volleyball we want to play.  
 
“There were unfortunately too many lulls where we weren’t generating momentum and it really allowed [the Wolves] to dictate the play.”  

What could’ve been an occasion to clinch a playoff spot with a month left in the regular season has now thrust the Huskies back into a tough mixture of teams in the ACAC North Division.  

Friday, the Huskies started out strong, but a narrow loss in set three fueled a reverse sweep by the visiting Wolves. Saturday, the teams traded sets before the Wolves won the game in the fifth set for a second consecutive day. Adding salt to the wound of the two losses was that the Huskies actually outscored the Wolves on the weekend, securing 208 points to the Wolves’ 198, though it translated to wins in just four of the 10 sets.  
 
“There was some hesitancy in us a little bit to grab the game and take charge a little bit,” Sloan continued. “When we struggled, we didn’t generate from the service line. It continued into the rest of the match where we got hesitant.”  
 
There were plenty of bright spots for the Huskies. Karlene Kaminski compiled 22 kills over the two games. Amanda Onyeukwu had her fourth double-digit kill game of the season Friday. A trio of Huskies in Kaminski, Saige Kehoe, and Taya McCarthy were all in double-digit kills Saturday, with Kehoe adding 13 more service aces to her conference-leading total.  

“It was just a really weird one where the sets we won we felt really good about and the sets we didn’t win the things that caused that were pretty obvious,” Sloan said. “We know we’ve got the ability to go do things like that. We put pressure on teams in really good ways and our middles were just popping off.  
 
“We can see it and that’s what moving forward we’ve got to understand what we’re good at, but have to clean up in the tight spots.”  

Also perfroming well throughout the two-game stint was Milan Schapowal, contributing 13 kills, 10 blocks, and six aces. 

“One of our big goals was to get the middles more involved in our offence, especially after Concordia; we didn’t get them enough volume,” Sloan commented. “We made a concerted effort to get both Milan and Saige the ball.  
 
“When you get middles involved, they stay engaged; a credit to our passing that allowed us to do that.”  

With six games left in the regular season, the Huskies will face a tall task this weekend, taking on the defending conference and national champion Lakeland Rustlers in the Border City.