Lions Fall To Clippers Again In Three

   Coming off of a tough three-set loss on Friday night, the Ambrose Women's Volleyball team was hoping to rebound and steal a game from the ACAC #1 Briercrest Clippers. Unfortunately, the Clippers proved too strong for the home team and won the weekend's second match in another quick three sets. Ambrose Player of the Game Julia Kemper said that she wished the team could have maintained their mental composure down the stretch. "Throughout the game I think we just lost our fire…we started strong and had points where that fire was there, and then they'd get a point and we'd lose all our energy."

            The first set did indeed start strong, as the Lions fought back from a 5-11 deficit to bring it within two points at 9-11. However, in what would become a familiar pattern, the tough serving of the Clippers allowed them to pull away anytime the Lions came close to tying the game. From 9-11 it became 11-17, and when the Lions pushed back to make the score 17-19, a serving run by Samantha Zacharias took her team to 17-23. Greatly improved passing on the Lions' part (by Mady Kerr in particular) didn't make enough of an impact, and Ambrose lost the first set 20-25.

            The second set showed scores very similar to the first, Ambrose falling to 6-11 early thanks in no small part to the Clippers' middle attack. Briercrest POG Karina Peterson (8 kills, 1 ace) was very effective both from both the service line and on the attack. Deceptive roll shots from Rivver Flewell and tips from Mady Kerr helped close the gap, but the Lions found themselves in a hole too deep to climb out of. Briercrest took the second set 25-16.

            In the third, the Clippers jumped out to an early 4-0 lead and never looked back. A late 5-1 run gave the Lions a glimmer of hope and the score was 16-23, but unfortunately were the victims of a minor scoreboard discrepancy at the end of the set. Briercrest won the set 25-16 and the game, three sets to none.

            "We couldn't quite execute today…I thought we had some good adjustments in defensive positioning but at the end of the day we couldn't stop their offensive power." Despite the tough loss, Head Coach Colin Kubinec is already looking ahead to next weekend's games against Lethbridge. "For next weekend we're trying to get our bodies, our minds, and our gameplay all at their peak…each weekend we learn something, we learned a lot this weekend and our goal is always to peak at this time of year so if we continue to rise and learn from games like this one we'll be ready."

            Ambrose (7-15) and Lethbridge (6-14) are both vying for the final playoff spot available in the South. Next weekend is make or break for the Lions, so tune in at acactv.ca or come see all the action in person, Friday night in Calgary and Saturday in Lethbridge. Go Lions!

- Brent Ingram