Kodiaks claw to victories over SAIT

By Lethbridge Herald on January 20, 2025.

Herald Photo by Justin Seward Lethbridge Polytechnic Kodiaks Kohlbe Anderson and Ben Dyck help in a successful block against Ryker Hutchinson of the SAIT Trojans during ACAC men's volleyball action on Friday.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Polytechnic Kodiaks men’s volleyball team moved to 11-2 on the season after a weekend home-and-home sweep of SAIT.

The Kodiaks followed a four-set win on Friday at home with a three-set sweep on Saturday at SAIT.

“I think we saw some good growth again over the course of the weekend,” said Greg Gibos, Kodiaks Head coach

Gibos thought the players did well with service pressure.

“Just making good quality serves to the targets that we were kind of looking for,” said Gibos.

 The targets were meant to keep SAIT off balanced.

Intensity on defence was also key for the Kodiaks, especially on Saturday.

“We had some extended leads and guys were still trying to put their body on the line and make the next big play,” said Gibos.

This weekend showed that the team can control areas of the game such as serving and defending intensity.

“When we do those things really well, we’re a great volleyball team,” said Gibos.

“We did a really good job of controlling what we could control on Saturday night , whether it’d be first contact, whether it’d be our intensity, whether it’d be our communication.”

Nolan Moes led with 23 points, 18 kills, three errors on 36 attempts on Friday night and had 22 points, 20 kills, one error on 29 attempts on Saturday night.

The Kodiak women’s team were swept in three sets by SAIT in both of their matches.

Basketball

The Kodiak men’s team split their games with SAIT.

LP opened with a 71-66 road win on Friday where Ryan Degner led with 21 points.

Lethbridge shot just over 40 per cent in field goals, made 19 per cent of their three pointers and   68 per cent from the free throw line.

SAIT beat the Kodiaks 80-66 at Val Matteotti Gym on Saturday.

Treydon Barton led the way for the Kodiaks with 17 points.

Lethbridge made 37.5 per cent of their field goals, 33.3 per cent of their three point attempts and 65.4 of their free throws.

The Kodiak women’s team dropped both of their games 85-48 and 78-54 on Friday and Saturday respectively to SAIT.

Three players had nine points for Kodiaks in the Friday loss and Bailey Blackmore had 16 points in Saturday’s loss.

Lethbridge made 37 per cent of their shot from the field, 20 per cent of their three point attempts and 57 per cent of their free throws on Saturday.

Their percentages on Friday were 31 per cent from the field, 15 per cent of three point shots were made and 76 per cent from the free throw line.

As of Monday, the ACAC website indicated that the Kodiak women’s basketball as well as another college has had to forfeit a number of games due to unspecified reasons.