Women's Volleyball Huskies stay perfect against Lions

Though they were honest in that it wasn’t their best performance of the season to date, the Keyano Huskies Women’s Volleyball team kept things pointed in the right direction Friday on the home court.  
 
A four-set win (25-21, 29-27, 21-25, 25-20) against the visiting Ambrose Lions, the lone game of the weekend for the ninth-ranked team in the nation, continued to keep the Huskies perfec4t now with a 5-0 record. 
 
“That wasn’t the smoothest or cleanest game from start to finish,” Head Coach Tommy Sloan acknowledged. “We had up and down moments. I think we’re going to still need to work on our consistency to make sure that we’re staying at a high level. We don’t need to be perfect all the time, but a high level more often.  
 
“I’m glad that we were pushed a bit and faced some adversity, because I think seeing that and being able to win in different ways is important.”  
 
It was another team effort for the Huskies, who were led offensively by Karlene Kaminski’s 12 kills and a 10-kill performance from Amanda Onyeukwu. The team’s success was also buoyed by nine kills from Taya McCarthy and seven from Klara Kubicka as the pair of second years continued to impress.  

“She’s been pushing and she’s been putting her time in in the film side of things,” Sloan said of Kubicka, who added three digs and an ace to earn player of the game honours. “We knew that we’re going to have to use a collection of people with our various strengths to get the job done.  
 
“Klara lately has been bringing a ton of energy and her play backed it up today.”  
 
Outside of that quartet, Saige Kehoe stepped up on the service line with four more of her conference-leading 18 aces.  
 
Drew Jacobson had a team-leading 19 digs in the match. A 33-assist night by Erika Box also featured two blocks, and four kills.  

“It’s crazy. It’s unexpected, but we’ve been working so hard in the gym, it shows that we have a great group of girls and we can accomplish anything,” Kubicka said. “I knew we had the game after the second set.  
 
“That [third set] was just a bump in the road; everyone has those. We came out that fourth set; we were ready to go.” 
 
The third set, which went the way of the Lions by a 25-21 score, could’ve been the tipping point for a comeback by the visitors. Instead, the Huskies came back engaged and focused to close out the match in the fourth set.  

“I thought we got tight,” Sloan said. “Their off-speed stuff was beating us we were just stuck and expecting it to be heavier than it was. Just reminders for our team to stick to the game plan. 
 
“It was just like, take a deep breath, don’t panic when the ball’s coming over to our side and we knew we had the better offence. Once we could get the ball to our setter and a good spot we were fine.” 

At 5-0, the Huskies will return to the South Division this coming weekend, taking on the Lethbridge Polytechnic Kodiaks and SAIT Trojans November 15 and 16.