Lakeland Rustlers bring home CCAA Gold
After more than six months of dominant play on the volleyball court, the Lakeland Rustlers women's team won the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association 2022/2023 Championship.
"Just pure excitement," fourth-year middle Kaylie Lueck said to describe how she felt after the tournament's conclusion. "Everything we've done in the past five-six years has paid off."
"Satisfaction of hard work coming through in the end," Head Coach Austin Dyer added. "We're able to reap the rewards of all that work."
The experience in Nanaimo, BC began with the Awards banquet on Tuesday evening, where Jenay Varga was selected as an All-Canadian and Dyer was named CCAA Women's Volleyball Coach of the Year. Varga was the ACAC North Division Player of the Year and an Tournament All-Star, while Dyer was North Division Coach of the Year, guiding the team to an 18-1 regular season record prior to sweeping the ACAC Championship.
The national tournament then got off to an uneven start Wednesday, with the Rustlers facing the Manitoba champion St. Boniface. Lakeland made an uncharacteristically high number of unforced errors, especially at the service line, as well as passing inconsistently on serve-receive. Despite their struggles and spirited defence from St. Boniface, the Rustlers were able to score on the outside and win 25-17.
In the second, ball control remained uneven, but Varga, Matthews and Bates utilized their physicality on the outside to great effect, pushing them to the 25-13 win. Then in the third, the Rustlers handled one or two sections of unsteady play to finish the match at 25-15.
Kaylie Lueck earned Player of the Match, providing her familiar steady hand at the net.
Thursday evening saw the Rustlers face an opponent they had defeated back in 2018, the OCAA Champion Humber Hawks. Early on, Lakeland's serve and attack put the Hawks on their heels in a 25-14 romp. A series of uncharacteristic errors gave Humber an early lead, which they eventually extended to six. The Rustlers stormed back to within one, but still made errors late in the 23-25 loss.
However, that was as close as Austin Dyer's squad came to significant adversity in the tournament. The Rustlers served Humber off the floor the rest of the night, leaving no doubt who would be playing for gold by winning the last two sets 25-16 and 25-12.
Varga was the POG with 19 kills, while Lueck also had another spectacular night in the middle, scoring almost at will against the opposing middle blockers to total 8 kills, 4 blocks and 6 aces. Dyer said the middle blocker might have had the best tournament of her life.
"She took all of the game plan information and knew exactly what they were going to do," he said. "She's transformed into a great leader, she's a great person and has a real competitive edge as well."
After a day's break, Lakeland faced the same opponent as they did when they won the 2017 CCAA title, the Camosun Chargers. This Camosun team came in as the PacWest champions, having defeated host VIU in their league final and the Augustana Vikings in their own national semifinal on Thursday.
For a second, the gold medal match looked like it could be as competitive as the four-set classic from six years ago, with the Chargers gaining an early lead. However, the Rustlers' relentless pressure drew errors from the opposition as the set progressed, resulting in a 25-22 victory. Lakeland started the second on a much stronger note, quickly putting Camosun off-kilter with their serving and shutting down their attackers to win 25-14.
The Chargers tried to punch back in the third, leading 16-14 mid-set, but once again, the women in green put on a clinic of service pressure, defensive positioning and timely attacks, to go on a 9-1 run. After Camosun saved two match points, Charger left-side Erica Bolink forced Varga to make a diving play on receive, before setter Jana Laing made the choice to give her attacker more time on the outside and Varga obliged to with force in swinging for her 12th kill to seal the match 25-19.
The third year from Muenster, SK thanked Laing for setting her up nicely on the final swing.
"It was just a really cool feeling to see that ball go up and Jan toss it out there and then score," she said.
Laing was the POG in the final, where Dyer said she was able to play care-free.
"She's very smart and understands a game play very well," he said. "She's grown into a great player."
Following several minutes of celebration from the team and the Rustlers faithful who had made the trip out to Nanaimo, the tournament hardware was handed out. Lueck was named the All-Star 2nd Team, Laing to the 1st Team. Varga was the MVP, posting 41 kills, 3 aces, 1 block and 21 digs in just 10 sets.
The three all-stars said they felt comfortable throughout the tournament.
"There was no doubt that we weren't winning the games when we were in them," Laing said. "Even when we were down, I saying to myself that we're going to be fine."
"That's how we've trained, and I feel like we were mentally tougher than everyone there," Lueck added.
"We're old and our volleyball IQ is high, it trickles down from our coach. Even when we were watching our opponents, we were picking apart everything they do."
One evening later, the team was greeted in Lloydminster by dozens of Rustlers athletes and community members. A perfect end to a perfect season for a group that's been together for five years.
"You've trained together and worked so hard, looking forward to this moment for so long, it's just amazing," Varga said.
Lueck added that they've wanted to duplicate the success of the team that won back in 2017.
"We see the banner on the wall, won by Ahnika Kuse, Shelby Becker and Rae Sigurdson," she said. "Now, there's one from Kaylie, Jenay and Jana up there."
The Rustlers can take a hard-earned rest in the coming weeks, but Lueck said they're already thinking about next year.
"I'm loving the moment but why wouldn't we do it again? Why wouldn't we want to, it's the best feeling in the world."