By Jadon Frank

A determined Medicine Hat team came back from being down two sets to none on Friday to win the next six sets over the weekend.

On Friday, February 8 Briercrest cruised through the first two sets before Medicine Hat did an almost identical reversal and won in a tight fifth set to win 3-2 (20-25, 19-25, 25-20, 25-20, 16-14). Kyle Pankratz was the Briercrest player of the game with a team high 11 kills, to go with one dig and one block. Each team had nine service aces, but Medicine Hat held the edge in every other statistical category, 52-43 for kills, 35-23 for digs and 14-10 for blocks. Steve Guenther had a game high four service aces and a team high eight digs in the loss, while Josh Wendel and Scott Willms each had a team high four blocks.

On Saturday, February 9, Medicine Hat sandwiched two tight wins around a lopsided second frame to win 3-0 (28-26, 25-15, 26-24). Jachin Karg was Briercrest player of the game with one kill and two digs in a relief role. Briercrest held the edge in digs 18-16, but Medicine Hat won the other battles, kills 36-21, aces 7-4, and blocks 11-4. Kyle Pankratz once again led Briercrest in kills with seven and Steven Guenther repeated his Friday serving prowess with another game high four kills to go with his team high two blocks. Pablo Acuna had a game high five digs.

Briercrest will have a bye-week before travelling to Fort McMurray for the ACAC Championships Feb. 22-24 as the fifth seed. Games will be streamed online at Sportscanada.tv, and the Briercrest Volleyball facebook page.