Women's Volleyball Huskies eye growth with strong returning class

There’s no time like the present to embrace a learning opportunity.  
 
That’s what the second weekend of exhibition action was for the Keyano Huskies Women’s Volleyball team. With a strong returning contingent and some key transfers from other programs, the club split four games on the road.  

“It was good,” Head Coach Tommy Sloan said of the weekend. “We were shorthanded again so we used a bunch of different lineups.  
 
“I think we’ve used 12 different lineups in our nine matchups that we’ve played so far. It was good to see the different ways we can be successful and with different groups of people out there. We played good teams and were able to get a couple wins.”  
 
The Huskies won a five-set match against the Olds College Broncos and dispatched the Providence College Pilots of Manitoba by a four-set score. They also took losses at the hands of the Ambrose Lions and Columbia Bible College Bearcats from British Columbia.  

On the returning player front, having 16 players coming back to the team’s roster has allowed Sloan to make progress with his roster development and challenging his second and third years to take the next step with their skillsets.  

“Sixteen returners makes that a little bit easier than other years,” he added. “The people that we’ve brought in have experience, they’re transfers and they’re very mature. From that side of things, our team is looking really really good.  
 
“They’ve adjusted well to different roles and elevated roles this year compared to what they had in the past. We’re going to be versatile and we’re going to be resilient. I’m excited for what that looks like in the season.”  
 
After a nine-game exhibition schedule, the Huskies now have their sights set on the start of the regular season, which will begin away from home on October 24 and 25. Their home opener occurs the following weekend on October 31 and November 1.  
 
Sloan is eager for the chance to see his team in action with the added pressure of the points and sets finally counting in the standings.   

“We’re really athletic,” Sloan said. “We have interesting, neat ways that we can cause problems for other teams.  
 
“I’m expecting us to look different than we did last year in terms of style of play, but also still be very competitive and very effective.”