On a weekend where the Keyano Huskies Women’s Volleyball team saw three of their stars approach the end of their collegiate careers, they gave them a little bit more runway by securing the fourth and final playoff spot in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference’s (ACAC) North Division.
“We’ve got to play as if it is our last game and how would you want to go out,” Head Coach Tommy Sloan said. “How would you want to play in your last game if you’re returning? How would you want your teammates to play for you?
“We knew there was a lot out of our control so we just had to put our heads down, go to work, get our win, and see what the volleyball gods had to say.”
After Friday’s 3-0 (25-17, 25-22, 25-18) loss to the SAIT Trojans and a win by the Concordia Thunder in Medicine Hat it was the Thunder who were ahead in the standings with a 7-11 record to a 6-12 mark for the Huskies.
However, a 3-1 (26-24, 20-25, 25-20, 25-16) win Saturday against the Olds College Broncos and a loss by the Thunder to the Clippers flipped the Huskies back into fourth in the division on the final day of their season based on tiebreakers.
“[It was] a little disappointing [Friday] night to just come up pretty flat in a game that was really important,” Sloan added. “On the flip side, really impressive to shrug that one off and change our mindset completely, come out tonight and weather a few early nerves, but then eventually take over the game and play with a lot of confidence.”
They got that confidence from the trio of graduating fifth years in Megan Polant, Hannah Shelemey, and Raisa Stokes.
Polant collected 27 kills and five aces over the two-game performance, including a quick run at the end of Saturday’s first set that helped flipped a 24-23 deficit for the Huskies into a 26-24 set win.
Shelemey’s impact was all around the stat sheet with two kills, three blocks, 10 digs, and two aces over the weekend.
For the final two times at home, the squad’s back row was guided by the McMurrayite Stokes, who added 25 digs across the weekend to further cement her place as the all-time digs leader with the Huskies, second in the ACAC’s history, and one of the program’s all-time greats.
“Raisa was fantastic for us all weekend; she’s been fantastic for a long time here,” Sloan commented. “Megan might have been our best player this weekend and certainly one of her most consistent weekends. Hannah, we’ve flipped her and change positions on her and we’ve put her in a bunch of different situations and she’s just so resilient to change and malleable out on the court. She had to step in and pass a bunch this weekend and was probably our best passer.
“To win the games you need to win you need your vets and your best players to step up and every single one of them did.”
With their qualification for playoffs , the Huskies have now earned a top-eight conference finish in three-straight years.
The Huskies will now prepare for a trip to Lethbridge to compete in the 2024 ACAC Women’s Volleyball Championship where they’ll face the South Division’s top-seeded Ambrose University Lions in the quarter-finals.
