Women's Volleyball Weekend Recap | October 21, 2017
The Lakeland Rustlers Women's Volleyball team continued their strong play and defeated the Grande Prairie Regional College Wolves in two home games this weekend.
On Friday, the Rustlers defeated the Wolves in 3 sets (25-23, 25-15, and 25-16). The two teams traded points to start the first set before the Wolves took a 15-12 lead. While the Rustlers found themselves down numerous times in the set, they fought back to tie it at 21, and finished strong, winning 25-23.
In the second set, the Rustlers built an early 11-8 lead and continued their strong play to build an 18-11 lead. The lead built by the Rustlers was too much for the Wolves to overcome, as the Rustlers won easily, 25-15. The Rustlers continued their strong play from the second set to start the third and took an early 8-4 lead. The set was all Rustlers as they led 11-5 and 15-8 before going on to win 25-16.
Second year setter Bailee Weiler and fourth year outside hitter Shelby Becker each had eight kills for the Rustlers, while fourth year setter Rae Sigurdson had 30 assists and eight digs.
Player of the Game for the Rustlers was #4, Alyssa Grondin.
Grondin, a fifth year middle talked about what the Rustlers need to do to get a better start to the game and their serve receive.
"We need to focus on our serve receive and get that free pass right away, right off the bat," Grondin said. "I thought our serve receive started off slow, but once we got a feel for them, we did really well."
Fourth year setter Rae Sigurdson also talked about changes the Rustlers could make to improve their first sets.
"We talked about it in our post-game meeting about why we do that," Sigurdson said. "I don't know if it is nerves still in the first few weeks of the season or what it is. We talked about in our practices, imitating the other team's servers and getting to know their styles a bit more before we get onto the court, so we don't have to learn it as we go. One of the big things is having Ahni (Ahnika Kuse) and Shelby (Becker) passing with Liv (Olivia Thomson) instead of Laura (Popplestone). They had passed with Laura for so many years so now it is just a matter of them getting more practice."
The Rustlers defeated the Wolves in 3 sets (25-19; 25-22; 25-17) Saturday afternoon. The two teams were back and forth for much of the first set before the Rustlers began to take control and built a 20-14 lead. The Rustlers held on to their lead and won the set 25-19.
Early in the second set, the two teams continued to trade points before the Rustlers were once again able to establish a lead 14-10. The Wolves fought back and took the lead, 16-15 before the Rustlers would go on to win the set 25-22. The third set was much like the first two with the teams going back and forth trading points early on. The Rustlers took a 13-7 lead, but once again the Wolves fought back. The Rustlers responded quickly and wouldn't give the Wolves a second chance, winning the set 25-17.
Becker had eight kills for the Rustlers, while Sigurdson added 32 assists and 2nd-year libero Olivia Thomson had 15 digs.
Player of the Game for the Rustlers was #10, Shelby Becker.
The Rustlers (4-0) travel to Edmonton on Friday to play the NAIT Ooks (4-0) before returning home Saturday night to play host to the same Ooks team. The game is set to start at 6:00 pm.