Host Kodiaks hold off Rustlers for semifinal berth

In front of a nearly-full and very boisterous Val Matteotti Gymnasium, the Lethbridge College Kodiaks thrilled the home fans and clinched a semifinal berth at the Murray Chevrolet Cadillac 2020 ACAC Men's Basketball Championship. It was an error-filled effort by the hosts, but it was enough for a 3-0 win over the Lakeland Rustlers. 

"We know we're going to at least be playing for a medal now in front of our home crowd, which is a big thing," said Kodiaks coach Greg Gibos. "We might have ground it out, it might have been ugly, but hey, the championships are a learning experience, right? So tomorrow we're going to take everything that we learned tonight, talk about it in the room and then hopefully adjust for tomorrow and bring our best game." 

In a hard-fought first set, the Kodiaks never led by more than four points, but Carter Hansen's (fifth year, General Studies, Magrath) three kills and Zach Wikenheiser's (fourth year, General Studies, Lethbridge) four blocks led the Kodiaks to a 25-20 win. The Rustlers' Ryan Van Oosterwijck (second year, University Transfer, Melbourne, Australia) led his team offensively with three kills. 

The second set was also close, but six more Hansen kills helped the Kodiaks keep a comfortable spread throughout a 25-18 win. Hansen had a game-high 13 kills, while the Kodiaks benefitted from several solid blocks from the front row kept throughout the match to hold momentum over the north division fourth-seeded Rustlers. Lakeland opened a brief lead in the third set, but four kills from Kodiaks player of the game Michael Hummel (fifth year, General Studies, Picture Butte) pushed the nationally second-ranked Kodiaks to a 25-18 win and a straight-sets victory.   

"We just weren't quite ourselves, I think usually we pride ourselves on our first contact and we weren't very good on that skill tonight on defense or especially on service," said Rustlers head coach Taylor Dyer. "It's been eight or 12 years since Lakeland College has been at the conference championship, so the learning is not done yet. We've got to make sure that we find a way to learn from this match and really soak in what it's like to play in this kind of atmosphere." 

The Kodiaks are the defending ACAC silver medalists and are into the ACAC semifinals for the third straight season. They will play the SAIT Trojans in a semifinal at 8 p.m. on Friday. Lakeland battles Keyano in a consolation-side game at 3 p.m. 

Players of the game:

Lakeland: Lane Blight
Lethbridge: Michael Hummel