It took a grand total of six games for the new SFU volleyball regime to top its win total from a year ago. After dropping their season opener, the Clan have rattled off five straight victories, including two last Saturday against other BC-based teams, en route to a 5–1 early-season record.
The Clan swept the Capilano University Blues three sets to none, before doing the same to the Douglas College Royals that evening.
The Clan were actually forced to play catch-up early on. Down 5–1 early in the first set, the Clan won eight of the next 12 points to take a lead they would never relinquish. They took the first set 25–17, never trailed in the second set (a 25–13 victory) and overcame an 11-all tie in the third to take the set 25–18, and the match 3–0.
Against the Blues, captain Kelsey Robinson scored 12 kills, easily a team high (Madeline Hait, second on the team, had six); junior Alanna Chan led the way in digs with 15, though sophomore Helen Yan also hit double digit digs with 10.
In the late game against Douglas, Robinson would again lead the offense, recording 11 kills in the victory, though she had help — fellow captains Amanda Renkema and Brooklyn Gould-Bradbury had 10 kills and 38 assists in the
game, respectively.
“They’ve been fantastic,” said head coach Gina Schmidt of her captains. “They were voted captains after just four days, and they’ve done their best to live up to that honour. They’re amazing in the locker room, but their play on the court is proving they can be leaders by example too.”
The Clan trailed only once in their straight-set victory over the Royals: in the third set where Douglas scored the first point. Other than that, it was smooth sailing for the Clan, taking the three sets 25–17, 25–18, 25–20.
“I thought we had a great team effort consistently throughout the weekend,” she said after the match. “We used several different lineups but whoever was out there played their role and played it well.”
But her players were quick to turn the praise around to their first-year head coach, “Coach Schmidt has done an amazing job,” said Gould-Bradbury. “I think all of the new players along with the coaching staff have brought a whole new attitude and a new aggressiveness to the court.”
The new attitude has paid off early in 2013: in their five-game win streak, the team has lost only one set.
However, competition will only get tougher from here on out. The Clan’s non-conference portion of the schedule is officially in the books, and conference play will be the true test of how the team stacks up.
“These past few games have been good trial runs for what’s coming,” said Schmidt of the upcoming GNAC schedule. “You can prepare and practice all you want, but there’s no real way to simulate that level of competition. We’ve been able to play different lineups and see what works best, and hopefully this early success will translate into more along the way.”
