The Kodiaks men’s volleyball team this weekend took out the broomsticks, sweeping the Red Deer College Kings
The team featuring eight new faces and was without it’s starting setter Zach Wickenheiser beat the Kings in two straight, five set matches
The team played in a pre-season tournament in Edmonton at the Saville Centre which included losing to the University of Alberta Panda who plays in CIS.
CIS is the other collegiate and university sports league which includes teams like University of Calgary and Grant MacEwan University.
Kodiaks men’s volleyball coach, Greg Gibos, said his team can work on being resilient and become mentally stronger.
“I thought we were too inside of our own heads. Volleyball is a tough sport when you are thinking and overthinking and worried about what’s happening tomorrow.”
Gibos explained the team was without Wickenheiser during the preseason which meant other athletes had a chance to showcase their skills.
The third-year coach has lofty expectations for his team but believes the team is dedicated and determined to live up to those expectations.
“We aren’t setting our goals at just winning a game at the provincial tournament. We like to win one, two, or three games to push ourselves to competing at the first ever national championship for the volleyball program.”
Last season, the Kodiaks made it to the ACAC playoffs for the seventh time in nine seasons.
The team entered the tournament 10th in the CCAA national rankings.
The men would win the first game in a five-set comeback against the Kings University Eagles.
However, the men would end up losing against Keyano College Huskies in the semi-finals and Briercrest Clippers in the bronze-medal match losing the chance to bring home the program’s first playoff medal.
Wickenheiser believes the team wasn’t satisfied with last year’s performance.
“It was quite crushing to end the season as we did even though there was a highlight of winning a playoff game. But now winning provincials, going to nationals and winning a national banner is at the top of the list.”
Gibos says outside hitters, Dax Whitehead and Carter Hansen, were key players in the team’s success last year and will definitely lean on them heavily as they combined for over 600 kills last year.
But he believes Kodiaks rookie, Quinn Buchanan is going to be essential to the team’s success this year because he is a high flyer and dynamic player at the net.
Other players to watch this season are local standouts, Jeremiah Bohnert and Nate Heyburn as well as ball control players, Michael Kindley and Malcolm Fisher.
The men’s volleyball team will have its home opener this week Friday against the defending ACAC champions – the SAIT Trojans in the Val Matteoti gymnasium. The women will start at 6 p.m. with men to follow.
