Despite a myriad of injuries and illnesses, the Dinos women’s volleyball team managed to scrounge together a group of players to take to Kelowna Oct. 28–29 for some scrimmages and a game at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.
“It gave the bench a chance to get confidence and improve,” rookie Raynell Lavertu said. According to Head Coach Kevin Boyles, Lavertu was “awesome” on the weekend.
The Dinos were forced to play their bench for good reason. In the week preceding the trip Janelle Findlay landed at the wrong angle on her ankle during Tuesday’s practice, Willemina Stikker-Breemhaar dislocated her hitchhiker’s tool during Thursday’s lengthy practice and Lauren Perry was downed by the influence of the flu on Friday.
But for our Dinos, these enormous setbacks seemed to be nudges. They held up well in the long scrimmages and won their game against the T-Birds, one of the top teams in the nation.
“It’s good to see we’re more consistently playing our level of volleyball,” Dinos Head Coach Kevin Boyles smiled.
The Dinos got off to a sluggish start, dropping the first set 21–25. The rest, as they say, is history; the following three sets went to our ladies (25–19, 25–13, 25–18). These results-with just nine players and star setter Natalie Schwartz not playing the full game due to a nagging knee-show the depth and skill of the Dinos lineup.
The Dinos won their first two regular season games against the University of Manitoba Bisons, but received two byes in the span of three weeks following those opening matches. This trip provided some constructive court time against a worthy opponent on their time off. The Dinos travel east Nov. 4–5 to take on the University of Saskatchewan Huskie ladies.