Rattlers women close out ACAC season on a high
The Medicine Hat College Rattlers women’s volleyball team went out on their highest note of the year Saturday night at the Snake Pit, collecting their first back-toback wins of the Alberta Colleges Athletics Conference season in a fiveset battle with the Lethbridge Kodiaks (25-20, 25-27, 26-28, 25-12, 15-2).
While Medicine Hat took the opening set, the Kodiaks mounted a strong pushback effort to steal away the lead after three. But the Rattlers regrouped and ran away with it, convincingly shutting down Lethbridge in the fourth set before blowing the doors off with a 15-2 tiebreaker victory.
The win rounds up Medicine Hat’s ACAC record at 4-20. Lethbridge also missed the playoffs at 6-18. Statistics from the match were not available.
Men’s Volleyball
Later that evening the Rattlers men’s squad dropped an inconsequential match to the Lethbridge Kodiaks in four sets (25-19, 12-25, 25-19, 25-21).
The loss leaves the Rattlers with a 19-5 record at the end of the ACAC season. While they are tied with the ACAC championship host Red Deer Kings, they clinched the tiebreaker to claim the top seed prior to Saturday’s match against Lethbridge. As a result, many of Medicine Hat’s starters weren’t utilized.
Vitor Pereira led the Rattlers with a game-high 18 points while setter Avery Triggs had 41 assists and Austyn Ducharme added 11 digs.
Dax Whitehead and Brandon Quach had 11 and 10 kills for Lethbridge, respectively, while Andre Piers put up a game-high 16 digs.
The Rattlers open the ACAC men’s volleyball championship Thursday at Red Deer College.
Men’s Basketball
Jordan Wynter had a double-double and Jaamel Slack put up 22 points from the bench to guide the Medicine Hat College Rattlers men’s basketball team to a 108-99 victory over the SAIT Trojans on Saturday night in Calgary.
Wynter’s 13 rebounds were a game-high — with 10 coming off the defensive backboard — while his 17 points put him alongside five other Rattlers to crack double digits en route to Medicine Hat’s eighth victory in a row. Rattlers forward Pietro de Andrade went 6for-6 from the floor.
SAIT’s John Smith kept the Rattlers on their toes all evening with a 35-point effort, while teammate Taner Parrington added 23. The win cements Medicine Hat’s place at the top of the ACAC South Division standings. At 16-3 the Rattlers are two points in front of Red Deer for first place in the ACAC South Division, though the Kings have already completed their season and Medicine Hat has two games left, both against the 7-12 Ambrose Lions.
The Rattlers men’s basketball team will host the ACAC championship at the Snake Pit, March 1 to 4.
Women’s Basketball
Earlier in the day, the Rattlers women’s basketball team kept their playoff hopes alive with a narrow 50-49 win over the Trojans.
Rattlers forward Kennedy Were led the way with a double-double, collecting 15 points and adding 16 rebounds. Guard Megan Getz added 12 points and Sheridan Popiena put up 10 from the bench.
SAIT’s Stephanie Haynes had a double-double of her own with 15 points and 12 boards, but the Trojan effort fell one point shy of the win.
Medicine Hat finished the evening with a 33.3 field goal percentage, nearly 10 percent higher than SAIT’s, to clinch their first win of the year against the Trojans.
The victory snaps a fivegame slide and pushes Medicine Hat to a 9-10 record — two points behind Red Deer for the final playoff berth in the ACAC South Division — with two games left in the regular season and both games in hand on the Queens.
The Rattlers return to the hardwood at the Snake Pit Friday to host the Lions before closing out the regular season on the road Saturday.