The Huskies come out on top and move on to the relegation finals
Red Deer, February 24, 2023 – The Keyano College Huskies bounced back after a loss with a four-set victory over the Briercrest College Clippers.
The last time these two teams faced off against each other was only two weeks ago when the Huskies sent home the Clippers with a straight-set loss.
The Huskies looked for some redemption after a heartbreaking loss to the Red Deer Polytechnic Queens in the quarterfinals. They started out the match very well and played some great volleyball which led to them taking a huge 16-7 lead into a Clippers timeout. As the Huskies had the momentum on their side in the opening set, they would cruise to a 25-16 victory with outside-hitter Megan Polant (Human Resources Management) finishing things off and picking up her second kill in the match.
The second set was a lot closer to begin with as the Huskies and Clippers went tit-for-tat with each other and just exchanged points in the early stages of the second game. They were neck-and-neck with each other which was as expected as the Huskies were third in the North and the Clippers were fourth in the South coming into the championship. Briercrest really had an answer for the explosive offense of Keyano as they have come up with multiple stops. The blocks may not have been officially recorded on the stats sheet but they found ways to get a hand on the ball and continue the rally which led to the Clippers taking a 19-17 lead into a timeout called by the Huskies. It was a fight to the finish with Briercrest coming out on top 26-24 after a huge block out of the middle from Julia Beers (General Studies) to tie the match up at one.
It was another close set to open up the third game of the match. The Huskies managed to pull ahead late with some incredible defense on their side of the court which led to points on the board for them. But some great attacking from outside-hitter Kelsey Simes (Master of Counselling) pushed the Clippers closer to tying the setup. The Saskatchewan-based team would fight off just one set point as Huskies outside-hitter Tyneille Neufeld would fly out of the back row for her eighth kill in the match to give her team a 25-21 victory.
With the Clippers season on the line, as they were down a set, they stayed neck and neck with the third-placed team in the North Division. No team was cracking under the pressure. Simes continued to be a threat on the outside as she picked up her 16th kill in the match to tie it up at 19. But the Huskies would score six straight points partially due to the outstanding serves from outside-hitter Lauren Huntley (Bachelor of Education) who would pick up an ace on match point to defeat the Clippers 25-19.
Outside-hitter Julia Beer was named the Clippers player of the game. She had 11 kills and an outstanding number of digs with 14.
The Huskies player of the game went to Rebecca Maxwell. She had an incredible 39 assists in the match with 6 digs and 3 aces.
Maxwell believed it was a team effort. The hitters were in the right spot at the right time when she wanted to set them up for a kill so in the end, they deserve a lot of the credit for this win.
The Huskies will move on to face The Kings University in the 5th/6th place game tomorrow at 1 pm. As for the Clippers, their season is over. Congratulations on making it to the championship and good luck next season.