By Robb Fenton
Things ended on a high note in 2009, at the end of the first semester, for the Lakeland Rustlers men’s volleyball team and they are hoping things continue when they kick off the second half of the season this weekend.
The Rustlers ended the first semester winning three straight matches and won an exhibition match last week over Augustana which has them excited about the possibilities for second semester, beginning this weekend as they host the Lethbridge College Kodiaks.
“We’re looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to seeing if we can carry on what we did before. However, having said that, the teams we beat are teams we theoretically should have beaten,” Rustlers head coach Daryl Ford said. “These teams that we are going to be playing now are teams that are new to us, we haven’t really seen them play.”
Lethbridge enters the second semester as the lowest seed in the South Division, but Ford noted that all the South teams beat the North teams this past weekend in the newly aligned divisions.
“We’re going to have our work cut out for us,” he said.
To continue their hot play and continue to be successful, Ford wants to see things improve as they did in the first semester.
“Our setting has improved and needs to keep improving. More than anything else, we’ve worked hard on attacking the middle of the net and that’s starting to show in the middles and setters getting a connection,” Ford said. “It’s good to see that. If we can attack more consistently in the middle, it will help us all the way around the court.”
The Rustlers know very little about their opponent, but the same can be said for the Kodiaks.
“We don’t know much about them, but apparently they have three guys in the top 10 for kills in the ACAC. If that’s the case, they’re a very potent offence,” Ford said. “It will then be up to us to stop them and match them. They will be some very tough matches.”
Without much of a scouting report, Ford is going to rely on his players to step up and react to the game as it goes on, learning from what the Kodiaks are doing and countering it.
“We’re approaching this on how well the setters can read what the other team is doing and whether they can move the sets around enough to create a problem for the Kodiaks’ middle to close on. If we can do that, with guys like Brett Dombrova and Josh Firlotte on the outside, we’ll do very well,” Ford explained. “We have to serve well, too.”
A great start is what the team is looking for early in the second semester to continue their strong play and hopefully set themselves up for a playoff run and a possible provincial berth.
“If we can come out with two wins, that would be huge for us to get started. There are going to be tough matches all the way through and we’re going to have to play well.”
The Rustlers and Kodiaks hit the court Friday night at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m.