Women's Volleyball Huskies stay perfect at home, surge to 8-1 heading into holiday break
On the journey of their season, the Keyano Huskies Women’s Volleyball team had vibed to a 6-1 record before this past weekend with the mantra of focusing on the next game ahead of them in the schedule and taking care of what they needed to in the moment.
With nearly two weeks to potentially dwell on their first loss of the season, the Huskies showed determination in a four-set win against the Briercrest College Clippers (25-22, 27-25, 17-25, 25-22) Thursday before adding some resolve in taking down the Medicine Hat Rattlers in five sets (25-11, 17-25, 25-15, 25-27, 15-12) Saturday.
“It was really nice to see us execute a more complicated game plan,” Head Coach Tommy Sloan said following Thursday’s win. “Briercrest was probably the most dynamic team we’ve seen all year, so it required a few extra things on our side.
“We needed to up our game in certain areas and we hit the nail on the head. We executed the game plan, we served well, we passed well.”
Those wins boosted the Huskies to second place in the conference entering the holiday break, newfound territory for the program that has continued to surpass each hurdle placed in their way this season.
Thursday’s win had all the familiar elements of the Huskies’ wins this year.
Karlene Kaminski and Taya McCarthy combined for 25 kills with Kaminski scoring a team-leading 13.
Erika Box posted a season-high 39 assists to cross 1,000 for her Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) career. Saige Kehoe stepped up in a massive way from the service line with a season-high nine aces, the most in a single game for the Huskies in more than 2,000 days.
“We never expected it to be easy,” Sloan continued. “We’ve been saying it all week so that was helpful. It wasn’t a surprise that [Briercrest] were going to pull back. We haven’t really been nervous in tight matches.
“That little bit of adversity and even the third set where we had to make some changes, we’ve been able to bounce back, and we did it again.”
Even when the Clippers pushed hard in the second set and won the third set, the Huskies remained focused on striking at their opportunities. Kehoe added 10 kills while Milan Schapowal added a season-high seven kills and added three blocks.
“Just staying focused and when they would go on runs, we would just stay calm, collected,” Kehoe said. “Our attitude and us staying complacent kind of allowed us to push through and come out with a win.”
Saturday’s effort required the Huskies to dig deeper. Mental miscues at key points and a scrappy Rattlers squad made for another serious challenge for the Huskies.
“We came out of the gate really well,” Sloan said Saturday. “I don’t know if it was just a struggle to stay engaged a little bit or the end of the semester fatigue. It’s been a long run.
“At the same time, we showed some toughness to be able to execute in that fifth set. they took us to the wire, but we didn’t break.”
McCarthy took the lead in the kill department Saturday with a season-high 17, with Kaminski close behind at 14 of her own. Box collected 35 assists in the five-set grind with Jordi Hazen providing an apt eight assists when called upon.
Amanda Onyeukwu and Kehoe both thrived at the service line with six aces each while Kaminski added four to her growing total. Libero Drew Jacobson nearly matched her season-best performance with 17 digs to lead the defensive effort.
Kaminski praised the effort of the team, which had to utilize their bench throughout the match, for sticking together to close out the win.
“It’s a different mentality when you decide to play for each other versus playing for yourself,” she added. “Today, this game was a lot of playing for each other.”
The results have the Huskies on a solid pace at the middle point of the 19-game season. They’re well on pace for their third season of double-digit wins, achieved previously in 2015-16 and 2022-23. Six wins from their final 10 games would also establish a new program record for wins in a single season, a chase that could likely continue until the final weekend of the regular season.
Placing second in the ACAC’s North Division so far and fifth overall in the country, the Huskies are also making their case for one of the three available playoff spots in the North Division. The University of Alberta – Augustana Vikings are set to host this year’s ACAC Championships, marking one of the four spots in the North already accounted for.
Without looking that far ahead, the Huskies will continue to forge their path forward with their next games at the start of January on the road against the Concordia Thunder January 10-11.