Women's Volleyball Semester Recap | December 14, 2017
Less than one year ago, the Rustlers Women's Volleyball went into ACAC Provincials as the underdog and emerged the champion. The team followed that up by heading to Nationals and becoming the National Champions. Halfway through the season, the Rustlers once again look strong as they aim to challenge for a Provincial and National Championship once again.
The Rustlers sit atop the North Division with a 12-0 record match record and a 36-6 set record. The Rustlers average nearly 12 kills, 11 assists and 13 digs per set. Leading the Rustlers on offense is fourth year outside hitter Ahnika Kuse, who averages 3.28 kills per set, with 4th-year outside hitter Shelby Becker adding 2.56 kills per set. The Rustlers have a solid setter in fourth year Rae Sigurdson, who has over 400 assists and averages 10.2 per set. Defensively, second year libero Olivia Thomson leads the Rustlers with 3.5 digs per set while Becker adds 2.56 and Kuse adds 2.31 digs per set.
Rustlers Head Coach Austin Dyer was happy with his team's success in the first semester.
"Things worked out really well for us," Dyer said. "We had to be prepared the first three weeks playing against who I thought would be the top teams in the North, and our experience and veterans allowed us to go 6-0. To finish the semester undefeated was something I didn't expect. As a coach, I think it is unrealistic to think you will never lose, especially in a conference that is tight and competitive like ours. Going forward, we have to keep working on being consistent on a regular basis and make sure we are competing at a level that is where we are being as good as we can be, instead of just being worried about finishing the season undefeated. It is great to finish undefeated, but undefeated doesn't really mean anything. Our goal was to finish first in the North and right now we have put ourselves in a good position to do that."
"Two players I have seen major improvements from are Rae Sigurdson and Chelsea Steinley. We have to remember that even though Chelsea is a mature student, she is only in her second year of post-secondary volleyball. She has made huge progress, has a strong ability to take in information and read the game and plays good defence as a blocker. Rae started getting to a point where she was playing in a league of her own at the end of last season. She has come back this year and is setting the type of offense that we want and she buys into what the team does."
The Rustlers plan to get away from the cold over the break, heading down to San Diego for a week where they will train, scrimmage against other Colleges and Universities from across Canada and have some fun.
The Rustlers resume the regular season January 5th and 6th as they play the Concordia Thunder. The Rustlers will be in Edmonton on January 5th and return home to host the Thunder on the 6th. The match is set to get underway at 6:00 pm.