The Briercrest Clippers played the Medicine Hat Rattlers and the home team ended up sweeping the team in three sets (25-19, 25-11, 25-21). The game had several back and forth moments where it could have been either of the teams chance to win. Briercrest used their strengths to solidify their victory and Medicine Hat played very well to stay in the game and stay close to their opposing team.

The first set was opened up with Erin Anderson of Briercrest serving and allowing the home team to successfully gather the first points of the match. The beginning of the first went back and forth, but Briercrest held the lead at all times by a minimum of two points. After a bit of back and forth motion, Janae Rapley picked up the serve and with great power plays a big role in bringing them up by five, giving them the necessary upper hand over the Rattlers. With Briercrest leading 19-12, Medicine Hat called for a time-out and eventually moved up to 17. Briercrest ultimately won the first set and Medicine Hat finished strong with 19 points.

The second set began with the Rattlers opening to serve, but Briercrest won the point and got a small lead of three points and the game went back and forth in the preliminary stages of the set, with Rattlers never being too far behind. A time out was called by Medicine Hat once Briercrest reached eight points and the opposition has three. The game continued to go slightly back and forth, but Briercrest eventually began to dominate the game and won their second set of the game with a final score of 25-11.

The third set started off closer than the other two, as the Rattlers pressure got higher as they need this set to stay in the game. Medicine Hat began to get momentum leading ahead by four points and causing Briercrest to call a time out. The game remained back and forth with the Rattlers leading 14-10 until Briercrest slowly began to pick up points and remains within only a few. Tied at 18-18, Medicine Hat called a time out and hoped that these last few points can be in their favour. Ryley Wiebe followed the time out and earned Briercrest points through her serves, giving Briercrest the run they needed to finish the set. The end of the set continued it’s theme of being a close game and the match is finished with Briercrest on top with a final score of 25-21!

The player of the game for the Medicine Hat Rattlers was number 3, Sarah Burris and for the Briercrest Clippers was number 8 Kathleen Bruce, who led both teams in number of kills with a grand total of 9 to go with a game high two blocks! Other team highs for Briercrest were Amanda Lundquist with a game high 27 assists, Ryley Wiebe with a game high three service aces, Lauara Cornelsen with a game high 11 digs and Mikayla Reinhardt with a game high two blocks.

Briercrest led almost every aspect of the game, kills 31-15, assists 29-14, service aces 7-3, digs 46-36. Both teams had 5 blocks.

Briercrest looks to sweep the weekend series against Medicine Hat  tomorrow Saturday, January 10^th at 1:00 in the Margaret P. Reimer Memorial gym!

If you are unable to make it out to support Briercrest live, access acac.tv where you can find the online broadcast there. For up to date information on the Briercrest volleyball team, “like” the Briercrest Volleyball facebook page.