Men's Volleyball Huskies shake off early nerves; top Clippers in four sets
It took the Keyano Huskies Men’s Volleyball one set to shake off any jitters at the 2025 ACAC Men’s Volleyball Championship Thursday before they regrouped to top the Briercrest College Clippers in a four-set battle (22-25, 25-13, 25-19, 25-19).
“Not the start we wanted; I knew we were going to come with a little bit of nerves,” Head Coach Keegan Kuhr said. “I’m really proud with the way these guys responded, those moments when that first set got away from us.
“They could have responded very differently, but I’m really proud of the way they came back and stayed together.”
While the Huskies got into their rhythm in the first set, the Clippers exploited that opening to build and hold a decisive lead. Errors on attack and from the service line compounded the Huskies’ problems, leading to the loss in the first set.
“[We] came out a little sluggish or maybe just some nerves coming in that first set,” setter Noah Gagné said. “Once we got going, we got our serves in, started getting really good.
“It’s getting those nerves out, talking to the boys, making sure to limit our errors and just make them play instead of us having the pressure on us.”
Between sets was when the Huskies flipped the metaphorical switch, storming out to a second-set victory to quickly even the match before pressing ahead.
“We went back to our game plan and obviously executed those last three sets pretty flawlessly,” Kuhr added. “Everything was just nerves. First contact with pass and with serve wasn’t there at the level it needed to be.
“I think when the guys got in there and realized we were just playing some volleyball it got better.”
When the Huskies did get back into their rhythm, the usual players came to play. Rafael Parada stepped up with 15 kills, João Cunha had 12 and Athus Silva collected nine kills in addition to four blocks. Brody Kopec and Preston Yole had seven and six kills respectively in the match.
“I feed off a lot of their energy,” Cunha said. “When they’re succeeding, it’s my success as well. I’m really happy for how Rafael performed, really happy for how Athus performed today, really happy for my performance as well.
“We feed off each other really well.”
While service aces were a topic of concern to start the match for the Huskies, it wasn’t a significant difference at the end. The Clippers committed 12 errors from the service line, including the winning point for the Huskies in the fourth set, while the Huskies had 16 in the match.
Gagné shines as Player of the Game
The Huskies main distributor of the ball, setter Noah Gagné, racked up 41 assists in addition to a pair of aces to earn Player of the Game honours.
“Noah settled in pretty well and spread the ball around pretty well,” Kuhr added of the Winnipeg, Man. product. “He got our Brazilians going, he got Athus going a little bit. After the first set, all guys clutched up after that.”
Huskies face Kodiaks in semis, seek strong showing for ACAC North First Place teams
As strong as the ACAC’s North Division is, the Huskies’ bid for a second ACAC Championship is staring up at a big statistic for all first-place finishers in the North.
Since the Huskies won it all in 2018-19, no team placing first in the North Division has won ACAC gold. They’ll get a chance Saturday at ending that drought of ACAC gold if they can defeat Friday’s opposition in the Lethbridge Polytechnic Kodiaks.
“They’re a really well-coached team so we’re going to be in for a heavy, hard swinging match,” Kuhr said. “We’re looking forward to it. I think our feet are wet now and we’re ready to go so I look forward to that matchup tomorrow.”
The two sides last faced each other on November 15, 2024, a 3-1 win for the Huskies, though they weren’t taking anything for granted based off that result.
“Every match is its own match,” Cunha continued. “We can’t really bank on the fact that we won in the first semester. We’re going to prepare just like we did in the first semester. I definitely expect a better team from the first semester.
“I feel they played a lot of good matches coming into provincials, so they definitely got better from the last time we’ve seen them. It’s going to be a battle.”
The Huskies and Kodiaks meet in the first of two semi-finals at the 2025 ACAC Men’s Volleyball Championship Presented by Elite Promotional Marketing Friday at 6:00pm in Lloydminster, Alta.