Kodiaks finding a new level of confidence
The Lethbridge College Kodiaks men’s volleyball team are seeing their confidence rise at the right time with the regular season wrapping up this weekend.
“A lot of our athletes right now are really confident,” said Greg Gibos, Kodiak men’s head coach.
Gibos credits much of the improvement to the work the coaching staff has done.
“Everyone’s done a really good job of preparing the athletes for what’s to come,” said Gibos.
“And our level of preparation has really allowed for a new level of confidence. I think we leave practice from Monday to Thursday and the boys are really confident in what they’ve accomplished during the week and that’s been leading into our match play on the weekends. At the start of the year, we were a really young team trying to find our identity, trying to find who we are and what’s successful and once we found that, we’ve really started to see what we our as a group.”
The team has won four out of their seven matches by four sets or less and made a statement win over Red Deer in five sets in the second half of the season.
“We’ve really spent a lot more time in the film room and analyzing our opponent,” said Gibos, on the success.
“Our athletes have done a really good job of putting in the extra work outside the court.”
The belief in each other has been noticeable among the athletes.
“Obviously the more you succeed, the more you believe in each other,” said Gibos.
“It’s a great cycle and that’s the big part for us, is just learning who’s beside us and trusting that they’re going to do the job that is required.”
Gibos says they’ve done the work. “They’ve been the ones that have like shown they’re fully capable of doing this,” said Gibos.
“It’s just maturity and just being battled tested playing in some of those moments. Obviously our season took a big turn sweeping Red Deer, right, winning both those matches in a fifth set by two points. We have that confidence now and I think we keep on replaying that mastery and that success in our heads and that really allows us to be confident moving forward.”
The Kodiaks will end the regular season by hosting NAIT on Friday and Northwestern Polytechnic on Saturday.
“So for us leading into championships as younger group, we just want to lean on experience and find success,” said Gibos.
“And then know that when the chips are down, that like our training and our level of play will allow us to be successful when it matters the most.”
The Kodiaks (12-5) are going to finish third in the South Division regardless of the outcomes this weekend.
The Kodiaks volleyball teams swept SAIT over the weekend after three set victories in each of their games.
After losing to SAIT 89-81 on home court on Friday night, the Kodiak men’s basketball team won a nailbiter 95-92 at SAIT on Saturday.
The Kodiak women’s team also beat SAIT on Saturday 79-68 to sweep the home and home after a 70-55 win on Friday night on home court.