Kodiaks clinch playoff spot

Pack your bags, Kodiaks women’s volleyball team, you’re heading to the playoffs. The Kodiaks handed the SAIT Trojans a 3-0 sweep in Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference play Friday night at the Val Matteotti Gymnasium.

With the win that improves them to 1110, the Kodiaks are now post-season bound for the first time since 2008.

“We’re really excited,” said Kodiaks head coach Anna Schwark. “At the beginning we were trying to keep it in perspective and understand we’re in a building year and if we get to provincials it’s a cherry on top. But we just have to continue to get better every day. The fact we were able to accomplish this is huge. We’re on a big high right now and we’re feeling confident and proud of ourselves and we want to share the Kodiak quality of volleyball that we’ve developed here. It’s a really awesome culture and I’m excited to have our provincials debut in almost a decade.”

In Friday’s game, the Kodiaks quickly took a 2-0 lead on the Trojans with 25-18 set wins, looking poised to roll to a sweep.

But the Trojans had other plans in a back-and-forth third set that saw the lead swap leads.

The visitors pushed the Kodiaks past the 25-point mark before the hosts were able to finish off the sweep.

“The first half we took it to them,” said Schwark. “I think we played especially well in the first half, so we were feeling that confidence. But I have a lot of respect for this program. I think they’re very consistent and in this league you never know what you’re going to get. I was getting a little scared in the third set. I definitely thought they could take that one from us and we were going four or five sets. But the girls played very calm and collected, they were confident,” said Schwark. “I think our serve receive is what won us this game.”

After wrapping up the regular season next weekend against the Olds Broncos at the Val Matteotti Gymnasium, the Kodiaks season will continue for the first time in a decade.

“It’s kind of unreal,” said Kodiak Kristine Ward, who hammered out 10 kills and 11 digs in Friday’s win. “We’re just making higher expectations of everyone on the team. It’s a big deal to play on the Kodiaks, changing the culture was our goal and it’s working so far. It’s exciting.”

It’s also exciting for some of the veteran players.

“They’re awesome,” said Ward of her teammates. “There are some girls that have been here since the very beginning. Laura (Serafini) has been here four years and our setter Ashleigh (Noel) has been here for three. And then have some older people this program hasn’t. It’s only a two-year program, so it’s hard to get people who are in their fourth year or fifth year. We have one fifth-year player, which is huge. So I think being able around really helped to make the younger players, too. Having that competition in practice has been awesome.”

Jamie Brown added nine kills for Lethbridge Friday as well as two blocked shots and two service aces.

Taya Mikado had five services aces and Serafini added three.

Carmen Nadeau chipped in with nine digs.

In the men’s game, the Kodiaks notched a 3-1 win (25-23, 25-21, 17-25, 25-19) over the nationally third-ranked and division-leading Trojans to improve to 14-7 on the season and into a tie for second place in the ACAC South Division with the 14-8 Briercrest Clippers.

Dax Whitehead paced the Kodiaks attack with 12 kills and eight digs.

Mike Hummel had eight kills and Matt Primrose put up 14 digs.

The teams complete the home-andhome series tonight in Calgary.