The Keyano Huskies Women's Volleyball team pushed their home record to 6-0, all straight-sets victories, with a three-set win (29-27, 25-19, 25-23) against the University of Alberta - Augustana Vikings Friday at the Syncrude Sport & Wellness Centre in Fort McMurray, Alta.
“[There] was a lot of things going against us this week in terms of injuries and just player personnel issues,” Head Coach Hayden Nichol said. “But it seems like whenever these girls are faced with adversity, they find ways to get it done.”
Megan Polant led the Huskies with nine kills, two ahead of a seven-kill effort from Tyneille Neufeld and three ahead of a six-kill performance from Rebecca Maxwell.
It was a win by committee for the Huskies, who had Lauren Huntley add five kills and the duo of Karlene Kaminski and Hannah Shelemey each add four in the win, the Huskies' 10th of the season, the first time they’ve hit double-digit victories since 2015-16.
“Augustana wasn’t prepared for some of the funky rotations that we had going on there at that time and people executed when we needed to,” Nichol added.
Raisa Stokes led all players with 12 digs, edging out an 11-dig performance from Addison Wolosuk of the Vikings. Maxwell had 22 assists for the Huskies, with five other Huskies recording a single assist in the match.
Sofia Janzen added a pair of blocks to give the rookie 27 on the season.
“It was tough at the beginning and middle parts of the week, but the closer we got to the game, the more excited we were for it,” Nichol said following the win. “The two losses last weekend are going to dampen the mood a little bit, but we started the week fresh, didn’t take any more time than we needed to on those two matches and really just focused on Augustana because we knew when they were coming here, they’re a really good team.
“We had to be at our best at all times in order to win.”
Shelemey earned Player of the Game honours for the Huskies while Emily Peterson had the honours for the visiting Vikings.
The two sides will meet against Saturday, with the first serve on the rematch scheduled for 1:00 p.m. Admission is free for all fans at the Syncrude Sport & Wellness Centre.
The game will also be available for viewing on ACAC TV and Telus Optik Channel 1998.
