A trip down to Camrose, Alberta resulted in a pair of exhibition wins for the Keyano Huskies Women’s Volleyball team this past weekend as they scored victories against the Concordia Thunder and NAIT Ooks.  

“The first priority of this weekend was trying to get our rhythm back to prepare for a pretty tough weekend ahead with Lethbridge and Ambrose,” Head Coach Hayden Nichol said. “In terms of that, we accomplished our goal. We definitely didn’t play to the ability that I know we can, but we’re showing signs of improvement throughout the weekend so that makes me happy.” 

Saturday’s first win came in four sets against the Thunder (22-25, 25-19, 24-26, 13-25) while their afternoon matchup against the Ooks was decided in five sets (25-21, 25-14, 21-25, 22-25, 15-7).

Back and training for a week now, Nichol was encouraged by what he had seen to date in 2023.  

“When we started training on Monday, we were ahead of the curve in terms of what I was expecting from just an overall play,” he said. “We came back a little bit sharper than I was expecting.”
 
Nichol did acknowledge some rust for his group from where they left off in the regular season to what he saw in exhibition action.  
 
“We missed a lot of balls that at the end of last semester we’d have easily handled,” Nichol said. “There was a lot of mistakes in serves and in attack.  
 
“A little bit of our touch in all aspects still needs to come, but defence, serve, and attack were definitely the three parts of the game where you can’t really waver in women’s volleyball.”  
 
It all leads into a second semester that will see the Huskies face quality and quantity in their opponents, starting with a road trip down south to face the top two teams in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference’s South Division, the Lethbridge College Kodiaks and Ambrose Lions.  

“This is the quality opponent that we’re excited to play.”

The Huskies challenge the Kodiaks on Friday, January 13 at 6:00 p.m. with a date against the Lions on Saturday, January 14 at 6:00 p.m.