Women's volleyball Huskies held winless on opening weekend by Eagles

The Keyano Huskies women's volleyball team are still searching for their first win of the season through their opening weekend of play.

Following Friday's season-opening loss in five sets, the Huskies came out strong early but couldn't maintain the momentum as The King's University Eagles claimed a four-set win (
16-25, 25-20, 27-25, 25-21) to close out the weekend sweep Saturday.

"It's definitely frustrating," said Tyneille Neufeld. "We definitely wanted the win, but we just didn't quite get there.

"It is only up from two losses so we're definitely going into next weekend harder."

Neufeld led the way for the Huskies with nearly a third of their 44 kills on the day, adding 25 digs as well, which were seven behind teammate Raisa Stokes, who had 32 on the day.

The back-and-forth nature of Saturday's game had both teams working hard to build sufficient leads and wrestle momentum in their favour throughout each set. 

"The team that works harder is always going to win those very close sets," said head coach Kira Sutcliffe. "Whenever we've had those battles in one-point here, one-point there, I think it just comes down to which team wants it more."

The Huskies did well to control that momentum in the first set but the Eagles found their footing and responded in the following three sets. A divisive third set nearly went the Huskies way, but the Eagles found the right timing to string points together to give them the advantage they needed.

Despite the defeat, the effort of her teammates and close nature of the match impressed Neufeld.

"I think there's a lot of passion," she added. "There was definitely some fire and we just didn't let the ball hit the floor at some points and I think that's exciting, especially when we have those prolonged scramble plays and then we end up winning that point.

"I think that's fun and it shows that we want it. We just have to work a little bit harder to go get it."

Named the player of the game in Saturday's contest, Neufeld drew high praise from Sutcliffe.

"Defence, she's an animal out there," continued Sutcliffe. "Offence, also just a beast. I couldn't really ask more from her. Her passing stats were great; her hitting stats were fantastic.

"Overall, she just did a really good job. She really showed her leadership out there as one of our captains."

From Neufeld's perspective, her opportunity to get back out on the court was one she had waited a long time for. Once that opportunity came, she made the most of it to help lead the Huskies' side.
 
"It's been a long time since I've been back on the court; probably like three years for me since I've competed in an official match," said Neufeld. "It was fun. There were nerves when I first walked into the gym, seeing the home court set up because I haven't seen that before.

"I love our gym, it's amazing and then we got those nerves settled down and it was exciting."

Now at 0-2, the Huskies will face another strong challenge at home from the visiting Lakeland College Rustlers, who swept a pair of games against the Concordia Thunder to begin their season.

Sutcliffe noted that the ensuing week of practice and upcoming home games were vital to the team's progress.

"I'm excited for next weekend though, excited for this week of practice to see where the team goes and works from here on because it'll show if we're buying into the program a bit more or just going to sail along."

The Huskies will play host to the Rustlers at the Syncrude Sport and Wellness Centre on Friday, November 19 at 8:00 p.m. before completing the weekend double header Saturday at 3:00 p.m.