Kodiak women’s volleyball finding their game

By Lethbridge Herald on February 8, 2024.

Herald Photo By Justin Seward Lethbridge College Kodiaks Aideena Wickstrom bumps the ball during practice on Tuesday.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

After losing 11 of their first 13 games this season, the Lethbridge College Kodiaks women’s volleyball team appear to have found their game at the right time after winning four straight games.

“We took the break to just really do a lot of self-reflection, kind of just be accountable and enact all things that we really talked about before the break and that alone has just made a huge difference coming back in January,” said Anna Schwark ,head coach.

“We still had a lot of tough competition. So it didn’t really manifest in us winning matches but we felt so much more supported on the court. I think just our ability to be better teammates was night and day than it was last semester. And so the more we were able just to kind of feel confident and feel safe in practices and in games, (and) to just take some risks and just work our hardest without judgement, that has really just allowed us to train harder and be better.”

Schwark has seen the girls practices become more elevated.

“They’re going after it,” said Schwark.

“Like I’m asking them to have zero per cent left in their energy battery after two hours. And so they’re doing a  good job at letting it all out and doing what they need to do to rehab, recover, rest, so that they can do it again for four times in the week. So that culture stuff has really allowed us to elevate our training. It’s not so much alright let’s make sure we’re present and make sure we’re here and now it’s OK now let’s serve somebody off the court, now let’s figure out where on the court we’re going to be attacking. It’s just allowed us to kind of  focus on more tactical things.”

Schwark said serving and passing was key to their success during this mini-winning streak.

“Like the four wins we’ve had was because we were passing a two or above, which is great,” she said.

Schwark thought against Olds, it was the most aggressive the team had passed all year.

“ I think we amped it up even more against SAIT (with being) super aggressive, a lot of serving runs (and) a lot of aces,” said Schwark.

Schwark agreed the timing could not be more perfect for this winning streak.

“The winning, it’s coming at just the perfect time because what we really need is just confidence,” said Schwark.

The Kodiaks host  NAIT tonight at 6 p.m. and Northwestern Polytechnic on Saturday at 6 p.m.

“So now it’s just really making sure that we’re only taking steps up the ladder and none back,” said Schwark.

“I think for us, it’s pretty common at least one day of the week to take a little bit of a step back and right now we’re just really like stressing that they need to be accountable individually (and) with each other. If you see the person next to you not pulling her weight, like bring her up, make sure she’s working hard and just demanding the absolute best and most out of each other because really this is it. Like this is our last couple weeks.”

This weekend’s outcomes will not affect the Kodiaks placing as they will finish fourth heading in as hosts of the ACAC Championship in a couple weeks.