Rustlers bear down against Thunder | Meridian Booster, November 10

The final outcome never really seemed in doubt.

The Concordia University of Edmonton Thunder women's volleyball team (0-6) presented the Lakeland College Rustlers (8-0) with a test in the last set, but the home side quickly found the answer.

That 26-24 comeback win provided a close to a dominant three-set victory for the Rustlers at the Lakeland Gym on Friday.

"They started to serve a lot harder and our passing struggled a little bit," said Rustlers middle blocker Brooklyn Boehm.

"We managed to pull it off. We started to midline the balls and tried to pop the ball up and that was helping us near the end."

The Rustlers charged out to a 10-3 lead on Ahnika Kuse's serve in the first set.

A Boehm ace and Chelsea Steinley spike from the front of the net then brought the advantage to 16-7 before a series of Thunder missed hits allowed the home side to capture the 25-11 win.

Rustlers right side Avery Maginel led her team to a 12-4 lead on her serve early in the second set.  The two teams traded points from there ending in a 25-13 Rustlers victory.

"Then, at the start of the third set, we started to make some errors that are uncharacteristic of our team," said Maginel.  "That's when we had to bear down and really focus on our side and make sure we were playing within our systems."

Boehm noted the team is doing well, but there are still lots of areas in need of improvement.

She said the recent work on blocking and defence turned out in their favour against the Thunder, so the focus now is to just keep improving more aspects of their game as the competition and the grind of a long season gets tougher.

"Our compete level and the way we play in practice just really transfers into games and we've been seeing that," added Maginel.  "We really commit to our systems and defense-first attitude, so then the offence will come. That's what our mindset is. We just have to play every point to the fullest."

Jamie Harkins, Meridian Booster