Lakeland Rustlers Weekend Recap - Oct 2, 2023
Rustlers Athletics heads into October with plenty of excitement for upcoming events and recent successes.
Multiple court sport teams had exhibition games, including men's and women's basketball hosting a pair of contests each against the RDP Kings and Queens, the latter of whom won the ACAC title last year. The women's contests were a strong debut for this season's National Championship hosts, defeating the Queens 77-63 and 88-52, while the men's games were more competitive, but the Rustlers came out on the losing end 91-96 and 89-102.
Women's volleyball were in Saskatoon to face off against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies for a pair of matches, losing 3-1 and 3-0 to the U-Sports squad, while men's volleyball held an intrasquad match on campus.
For soccer, it was another momentous weekend, with the women and men combining for another four victories, this time against the NWP Wolves.
Lakeland's women's team came into the matchup hoping to get to above .500 for the first time this season, while the Wolves were looking for their first win on the year. Four minutes into Game One, Darian Pluhator scored off of the feed from Megan Hockley to give the home team the lead and added a second later in the half. In the later frame, the Rustlers increased the pressure and came away with the 5-0 shutout.
Kayla Mondue (who scored the third goal) was the Player of the Game.
On Sunday, NWP showed more fight in the opening minutes, holding off the Rustlers attack, but that pressure eventually bore fruit, when Pluhator was awarded a penalty kick and made good on the opportunity in the 27th minute. Then, in the dying second of the half, Mondue hit the bottom right corner of the goal to extend the home team's lead heading into the break.
Early in the second half, Hockley added to the goal total, thanks to nice passing from Annika Brown and Pluhator. The Rustlers road that lead through the rest of the contest to win 3-0.
Lindsay Sluar was the Player of the Game
On Saturday, the men weren't able to capitalize on many scoring chances, but the one they did was enough.
Late in the first half, a tremendous strike from Hani Tekheste, the most recent ACAC nominee for CCAA Athlete of the Week, put the Rustlers ahead by one. In the second half, there were a series of chances from Lakeland, but Wolves keeper Evan Doerkson held his ground in spectacular fashion. Eventually, Lakeland ran out the clock and took the victory 1-0.
Drew Chesters and Doerkson were the respective Players of the Game.
Lakeland played a new starting lineup Sunday afternoon after the narrow 1-0 win on Saturday. Early offensive pressure led the Rustlers to several scoring chances, culminating in a successful penalty kick by Ben Siglic. Kristian Korkis also scored in the first half for the home team.
In the opening five minutes of the second half, Siglic scored his second of the game and NWP started to show the fatigue of playing their third game in as many days. Yassin Hassen and Ethan Stroud (who won Player of the Game) also scored.
The women's team is now tied for third in the ACAC North Division and only one point out of second. They'll face top ranked Concordia this Saturday in Edmonton at 12:00 PM. In the following contest at 2:00 PM, the men will defend first place in the North Division for the first time this year, having moved ahead of NAIT and The King's University.
Additionally, women's hockey opens the season this weekend on the road. They'll face RDP on Friday and Olds on Saturday. Men's volleyball have exhibition play Friday and Saturday against King's and Augustana on the road, while men's and women's basketball host the Briercrest Clippers in exhibition games at Lakeland on Thursday and Friday.