Kodiaks men’s volleyball handed first losses
HANSEN HITS 1,000 CAREER KILL MARK, WHITEHEAD’S NUMBER TO BE RETIRED
The Lethbridge College Kodiaks men’s volleyball team had a little bit of everything served up to them Saturday afternoon at the Val Matteotti Gymnasium.
In the win-loss column, it wasn’t what the Kodiaks were hoping for as the team was handed it’s first two losses of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference season, dropping a 3-1 decision to the Red Deer Kings Saturday afternoon in a tilt of the top-two teams in the South Division.
The Kings took the first match in five sets Friday night to sweep the Kodiaks, who remain first in the South, but are now 20-2.
However, another milestone and some personal recognition also took place in front of a full Val Matteotti Gymnasium.
First off, Carter Hansen became the second Kodiak this season — and fifth player in ACAC history — to hit the 1,000 career kill mark early in Saturday’s game, joining fifth-year teammate Dax Whitehead in that elite company.
Then, in the Kodiaks final home game of the regular season, the team — led by Kodiaks head coach Greg Gibos — honoured graduating Whitehead in a post-game ceremony, announcing they would retire the veteran’s number 12 at the end of the season.
But first up was an entertaining, back-and-forth match between the South’s two best teams in four sets that rarely got three or four points apart.
The Kings won the first set 2523 before the Kodiaks evened the affair with a 25-22 second set win.
Red Deer moved up 2-1 after a 26-24 in the third set.
Then came the fourth set that sent a few pulses it the packed gym racing as both teams battled well past the 25-point mark and into the 30s before the Kings earned a 34-32 win to post the 31 win and the weekend sweep.
“I think today we had lots of learning experiences,” said Hansen, who had 26 kills on the afternoon. “They came in hard and we weren’t expecting that. We were 20-0 and knowing we had that confidence but they really gave it to us and we’re excited to see them in playoffs.”
Saturday’s scores demonstrated the small margin of victory between the teams in the ACAC South, said Gibos.
“The set scores were all within three and it just shows you that anyone from one to two to three to four in the ACAC South is a really good volleyball team and
sometimes the margin of victory is one dig or one extra play or one extension. We were on the wrong side of that tonight, but I thought we’ve been on the right side of it for a long time. For us, we’re going to go back to the drawing board and work to get that extra break or that extra dig or that extra block. For us, it’s not a feeling of disappointment or sadness, it was two good volleyball teams coming into the gym today and playing. They just happened to be better than us today. We’ll learn from that and do it again tomorrow.”
Whitehead finished the game with 12 kills, while Matt Primrose added 14 digs.
Michael Svab had seven blocked shots.
The game was briefly halted when Hansen hammered his historical kill.
“I knew it was coming, but it was very special, especially at home with my family and friends here, said Hansen.
He knew the milestone was approaching, but that stat was the last thing he was thinking of when he began his Kodiaks career.
“This never comes to mind,” said Hansen. “You just play to have fun and eventually it happens.”
“Carter has shown a lot of resilience over the years and for a kid who is just such a good
person,” said Gibos. “It's awesome for him to get to celebrate this accomplishment in front of his friends and family. He’s a southern Alberta boy and it’s crazy to think he still has a whole year left of volleyball. It’s awesome to celebrate everything that he has accomplished because he has been a guy that has never been recognized by the league. He's got 1,000 kills and he's never been named a league All-Star. He’s been a warrior for this program for a long time so we are excited to see what he can do down the road.”
In an emotional post-game ceremony with the members of the Kings respectfully lined up on their side of the net, Gibos announced the program’s intent to retire Whitehead’s number 12.
“For us he’s the guy that always believed in this place and he’s the guy that not only wanted to do well for himself, he wanted to do it for the program,” said Gibos. “He’s always wanted what’s best for the Kodiaks and he's got a lot of individual awards from it, but he’s one of those guys that is team first no matter what. That’s what we want to celebrate today. We got to recognize him individually as somebody who would probably like to hide from all that recognition and just do his thing. We got to celebrate him as a person. So I think that’s pretty special.”
Upon hearing the news, Whitehead stepped towards the packed grandstand applauding the crowd before jogging to the sidelines to embrace some family and friends.
“That meant the world, I did not know he (Gibos) was going to do that,” said Whitehead. “I thought he was just going to give me my jersey in a frame or something. So I was very honoured for them to retire my jersey from this program.”
In the women’s game, the Kodiaks were defeated 3-0 by the Queens.
Brooke Ringuette had five kills for the Kodiaks and Jamie Brown put up eight digs
Laura Serafini had three blocked shots.
On Friday night, the Kodiaks women honoured their fifthyears, middle Serafini and outside hitter Sianna Cherweniuk, as their graduating players.
Serafini, from Grasmere, B.C. led the Kodiaks with 126 kills and an average of 1.66 per set.
Hailing from Calgary, Cherweniuk averaged 1.09 killsper-set. Her 80 digs gave her an average of 1.48 per-set.
The Kodiaks finish the regular season this weekend when they head to Olds to face the Broncos Friday and Saturday.
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