Playing with poise is key, coach says

The University of Saskatchewan women’s volleyball squad welcomes back five starters.

For a change, the Huskies will start with an advantage, not disadvantage.

“We bring back a lot of starters for the first time in a while for the Huskies,” says setter Gina Barker.

“Hopefully we’ll come out of this season with a lot more wins. Our biggest goal each year is to make playoffs and this year I feel we’re a strong contender.”

Barker is joined by holdovers Kayla Tycholiz, Candace Hueser, Emily Humbert and Anne Hanbidge.

“Consistency (will be key),” Barker stresses. “We’ve come a long way. We have a strong starting line and we have a lot of people who can come off the bench. We have a deep bench, which helps a lot.”

Hueser has led the Huskies in kills each season. Tycholiz led the team in points last season with 203, adding 163 kills and 46 blocks.

New to the team are a pair of Medicine Hat College transfers in middle blocker Julia Kryzan and outside hitter Emmalyn Copping along with Holy Cross grads Mackenzie Pek and Jenelle Sokoloski.

“We’re looking to prove ourselves as a potential playoff team this year,” says head coach Jason Grieve.

“There’s an opportunity with a large number of returnees to the group. We feel that our skill-set has moved forward, and just the speed of our game has, too.”

The perennially tough Canada West has six teams ranked in the CIS Top 10.

“For us, it’s really about playing with poise and staying calm from 0-25,” Grieve says. “We showed in pre-season that we can do a great job of executing our systems and skills up until about 20. It’s really how we finish sets now.”