Today marked some firsts and lasts for the Briercrest women’s volleyball team as they took on Ambrose University. Briercrest came into their final home game of the season with a guaranteed first place spot in the standings for the first time in Briercrest women’s volleyball ACAC history. Also, today was the last time graduating captain Mikayla Reinhardt would be in the Hangar wearing a Briercrest uniform.

Briercrest battled hard throughout the three set loss against Ambrose University (24-26, 17-25, 20-25).

Briercrest started off the game with a new starting line-up of mostly rookies to go up against Ambrose. Once the teams stepped on the court the game was off to an intense start. Both teams were making long hard rallies causing the score to go back-and-forth. Ambrose then started to pick up momentum and pull ahead. Briercrest battled hard and came back to tie it up forcing Ambrose into a timeout. Both teams came back equally as strong causing for the score to go back-and-forth once again. Ambrose then started to execute plays that would allow them to pull ahead. Briercrest then called timeout at 17-20 to try and kill Ambrose’s momentum. Briercrest started to close the gap causing pressure to be put on Ambrose. Ambrose called timeout at 23-22 to try and ensure they would keep the lead. After some intense rallies and key defensive plays by both teams, Briercrest was unable to pull ahead. The first set score was 26-24 for Ambrose.

The second set started off similar to the first set with both teams battling it out point-for-point. After some long rallies, Ambrose started to slowly pull ahead of Briercrest. Briercrest soon called timeout to try and put a stop to Ambrose’s lead. Ambrose came back stronger after the timeout though and continued to add to the score. Briercrest battled hard each play but wasn’t able to gain the lead giving Ambrose their second set win with a score of 25-17.

After some rallying back-and-forth, Ambrose started to pull ahead once again. Briercrest felt the pressure and called timeout at 11-14 in hopes of being able to gain the lead and force and fourth set. Briercrest was able to close the gap a bit but Ambrose responded well by battling back and increasing their lead again. Briercrest was unable to gain the lead giving Ambrose their third set win of 25-20.

Karina Peterson was awarded Player of the Game by Briercrest men’s hockey coach, Jamie Ramer. Peterson had 10 dig and a game high of 13 kills. Adriana Dewar had game highs of four service aces and 12 digs. Kaitlyn Falk had a game high of 27 assists along with Elicia Wiebe having a game high of four blocks.

Briercrest beat Ambrose in almost every stats category with 31-26 kills, 30-25 assists, 56-55 digs and 5-2 blocks. Ambrose had 9-6 service aces.

Next stop for the Briercrest women’s volleyball team is the ACAC Championship, which will be hosted by Red Deer College. There they will be competing to advance to the CCAA Nationals, which will be hosted in Charlottetown, PEI.

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