The Clan can’t buy a win, fall to 1–7

By Bryan Scott
Photos by Vaikunthe Banerjee

Simon Fraser’s women’s volleyball team continued to struggle this past week. They met the Northwest Nazarene Crusaders and the Western Oregon Wolves, who both proved to be too much for the Clan. Both teams defeated the Clan three sets to one.

They battled the Northwest Nazarene Crusaders first. The Clan battled hard in the first set, taking it 25–19. That was the only set they won all night. The Crusaders must have woken up after the first game loss, because they dominated the last three sets of the match, 25–12, 25–18 and 25–14. Despite the loss, Clan head coach Lisa Sulatycki had a positive outlook. “There were a lot of good rallies and we gained valuable experience in this game. They play a unique style and our players did a good job adjusting to that.” Katie Forsythe was a force for the Clan leading the team with 11 kills in the match.

Things did not get easier from there. The Western Oregon Wolves are first place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Once again, the Clan came out on fire in the first set. They started the game on a 7–2 run, and managed to hang on to win the first set, 26–24. The Wolves won the next three sets, 25–21, 25–13, and 25–19.

With these losses, the Clan are 2–9 overall, and a miserable 0–5 in conference play. The Clan will have to work on their consistency if they expect to do better in the rest of the season.