Kodiaks to battle for bronze

After making some program history Friday, the Lethbridge College Kodiaks men’s and women’s soccer teams will play for Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference bronze today.

Playing in the semifinals of the ACAC Championship Saturday in Calgary, the Kodiaks women were defeated 3-0 by the host and South Division-leading SAIT Trojans, while the men were blanked 4-0 by the North Division topseeded NAIT Ooks.

On Friday, both Kodiaks teams won to become the first soccer teams to advance to the ACAC semifinals in the same year.

In the women’s game Saturday, the Trojans scored once in the first half and added two more in the second half, sending 20 shots at Kodiaks goaltender Brittany Klein, who put up 17 saves.

The Kodiaks put eight shots on the SAIT goal, but were unable to find a way past Trojans goaltender Amy Offredi.

Curran led Lethbridge with 23 digs in Saturday’s game.

“They were both really consistent this weekend,” said Schwark. “They held us in the game quite a bit, so they both did really well.”

The Kodiaks head coach credited her team for giving themselves a mental check when the second set headed past the 25-point mark.

“Once it got to 25-25 we started to get a little bit frustrated,” said Schwark. “We got really scrambly and the girls kind of had a hard time keeping their composure. But a couple of them assumed that role and brought them into the huddle and said ‘You know what? We’re better than this. We can play and we’re proving that right now.’ I think once they were able to chill out a little bit and get that confidence back they definitely controlled the play and played to the end. It was really nice to see.”

Mackenzie Lewicki led the Kodiaks with 10 kills Saturday night, while Laura Serafini and Harper Elwood each had nine.

Jamie Brown, Arnott and Lewicki had 17, 16 and 13 digs, respectively. Lewicki also had three of the Kodiaks five service aces.

Dax Whitehead and Carter Hansen paced the Kodiak men with nine kills each Saturday night. Whitehead also had six digs and Hansen added four service aces.

Quinn Buchanan had four blocked shots for the Kodiaks.

On Friday in Calgary, Serafini had seven kills. Brown put up 13 digs and Curran had 11.

The Kodiak men won 30 on Friday (25-16, 25-17, 25-21).

Hansen had nine kills and Tony Albizzati and Whitehead each had six. Whitehead also had 12 digs.

Follow @DWoodardHerald on Twitter