The opening set of Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) exhibition games for the Keyano Huskies Women's Basketball teams sawing promising results with the team capturing a pair of wins and taking a single loss.
On Thursday, September 29, the Huskies opened their preseason with a 59-51 win against the NAIT Ooks in Edmonton. They followed that up the next day with a 61-55 win against the SAIT Trojans. Saturday, their weekend came to a close with a 70-58 defeat at the hands of the Ambrose Lions.
"The weekend was really good," Head Coach Dwayne Vigilance said. "The girls played really well. Obviously, we're not where we should be.
"Lots of mistakes, but I think through those mistakes we got better game after game, even though we had a little falter in the last one."
In last Thursday's victory over the Ooks, Vigilance took pride in getting the road win while his players saw it as a chance to exact a bit of revenge for their playoff loss last year.
"The girls really looked at that as a revenge game, but not for me," Vigilance continued. "They have a different coach, different style, different players so I didn't look at it that way.
"It was nice to beat NAIT at NAIT."
Helping the team along in the early going is the return of a pair of past Huskies in Grace Pardell and Joy Victor, who both suited up with the 2019-20 Huskies. Having them back with the team has been a boon to the team's early results and getting acclimate to another season.
"You can't beat that experience," Vigilance said. "Coming back to our program, we welcomed them back with open arms.
"Their experience and their height and the impact they'll have on our team is pretty big."
For their second and final exhibition weekend, the Huskies will head south to Red Deer, taking on the Red Deer Polytechnic Queens, Lethbridge College Kodiaks, and a rematch against the Ooks.
"Right now, our eyes are wide open just figuring out how good we can really be," Vigilance said. "Now, it's just kind of developing all the skills we took from the weekend and hopefully we can be better."
The Women's Basketball Huskies open their 2022-23 ACAC Regular Season on October 21-22 in Grande Prairie against the Northwest Polytechnic Wolves and return home on October 28-29 for their home opener as they host the Lakeland Rustlers. Tip-off for Friday's game is at 6:00 p.m. followed by Saturday's game at 1:00 p.m.
Ticket pricing for Keyano Huskies 2022-23 ACAC season home games (includes both games on a gameday):
13 and older: $5
Children 12 & under: Free
Keyano Students: Free with student ID
