Skip to navigation Skip to content Skip to footer
Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference "To be Canada's premiere collegiate athletic conference by developing and inspiring leadership through excellence in academics, sport and citizenship"
Posted: Jan 28, 2017

Crosstown Battle Ends In A Four Set Loss For Lions

Box Score
Game Leaders
SAIT
K: Trent Mounter - 15
B: Juan Becerra - 3
D: Trent Mounter - 15
SA: Trent Mounter - 2
AMB
K: Godi Jibi - 6
B: Nolan Ens - 2
D: Curtis Dyck - 9
SA: Jared VanderZwaag - 2
Team Stats
Full stats

            With an injury-hobbled lineup, the Ambrose Men's Volleyball team took the SAIT Trojans to four sets but ultimately lost Saturday night's contest. Head Coach Paul Armbruster remarked, "We're not executing at a high enough level when it comes to earning points…in this second semester our hitting efficiency has been quite low, so often at the end  of the night we're just not earning enough points."

            SAIT dictated the pace of the entire first set, gradually widening their lead until the had doubled the score of the home team at 20-10. Unforced errors put the Lions in a hole too deep to climb out of, and at 24-11, Trent Mounter wiped the ball off the Ambrose block for the final point of the first set.

            The second set looked much more promising; with the score tied at 15-15, an ace from Jared VanderZwaag and a kill from Curtis Dyck put the Lions up by two before SAIT called a timeout. Improved offensive production from the Lions kept the score close until the final points of the set, when SAIT began to pull away. Trojans rightside Russell Grusing scored the set winning kill, ending it at 25-22.

            In the third, a few Ambrose lineup changes tilted the match in favour of the home team: team captain and starting middle Nolan Ens was moved to the rightside, and Dan Sweeting stepped it up in the middle to replace Ens. The Lions jumped out to an early 6-1 lead thanks to several blocks by all three members of their front row, and this time would not give up their lead so easily. By the time SAIT called a timeout it was 15-8 for the Lions, thanks to a combination of unforced errors by the Trojans and solid play from Ambrose. The home team's middles finally began making an impact offensively; Godi Jibi racked up a few kills and put in several tough serves en route to being named the night's Player of the Game, and the final kill of the set came from Dan Sweeting.

            The fourth set started off well and the Lions were only down 10-12 before SAIT serving sub Alexander Fabian entered the game. Fabian proceeded to lead his team on a 10-0 run, making the score 22-10 for the Trojans and an almost impossible comeback for the Lions. At 24-12, a hitting error from Adrian Strandberg gave the Trojans their 14th win of the season.

            Armbruster acknowledged the positives as well as the negatives after the game: "I'm happy with the development and growth of our float servers, I thought we attacked well through the middle, but overall the serve/pass battle was quite significant for us. When we start passing bad we become a one-dimensional team."

            The Briercrest Clippers come to Calgary next weekend, and the men's teams play at 8:00 pm on Friday night and 3:00 pm Saturday afternoon. If you can't make it to the Lions' Den in person, all the action will be streamed live on acactv.ca. Go Lions! 

 

- Brent Ingram