By Jadon Frank

Briercrest women’s volleyball won 3-2 (25-19, 23-25, 22-25, 25-19, 15-9) against Medicine Hat College in the ACAC Championship consolation semi-final February 23, 2013.

Briercrest came out in the first set with a quick 5-1 lead before Medicine Hat came back to make it 5-3. Briercrest responded with a run of their own to force a Medicine Hat timeout with the score 11-6 in Briercrest’s favour. Medicine Hat responded well from the timeout before Briercrest regained control and brought the score to 17-11.Briercrest built the lead to 24-15 and Medicine Hat attempted to make a late comeback but Briercrest held on to win it 25-19.
Medicine Hat jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the second set before Briercrest came back to make the score 5-4. Medicine Hat went on another run to bring the score to 9-4 and forced a Briercrest timeout. Medicine Hat added to their lead coming out of the timeout bringing the score to 11-4 before Briercrest responded with two quick points. Medicine Hat kept the pressure on and forced another timeout at 15-9. After Medicine Hat built a 22-17 lead Briercrest forced a timeout at 23-20. Briercrest responded with two points out of the timeout to get the score to 23-22, and was then back and forth before Medicine Hat took the second set with a 25-23 score and evening the match at one set aside.
The third set was back and forth until Briercrest took a 14-10 lead. Medicine Hat then went on a 5-0 to take 15-14 lead and force a Briercrest timeout. After Briercrest took a timeout down 21-18 the remainder of the set went back and forth until Medicine Hat took it 25-22 and a 2-1 lead in the match.
Facing a must-win set Briercrest jumped out to a quick 8-2 lead before Medicine Hat slowed down the Briercrest momentum and played side-out volleyball for much of the set. Medicine Hat was able to cut the score to 19-15 before Briercrest finished off Medicine Hat 25-19 to force a final and decisive fifth set.
The fifth set started close as both teams went back and forth until Briercrest went on a 3-1 run to make it 8-5 at the break. Briercrest then built a 13-8 lead. Medicine Hat was able to fend off some great Briercrest attacks to postpone the victory until Erin Anderson had a decisive kill to end the match 15-9 to win the game 3-2 (25-19, 23-25, 22-25, 25-19, 15-9).

Briercrest’s player of the game was Starlet Peterson (first year; Weyburn, SK) with a 10 kills, two service aces, 17 digs and a game high three blocks.

Game notes:

Briercrest held the edge in kills with 42, service aces with 16 and blocks with 11 in comparison to Medicine Hat with 32, nine and 10 respectively. Medicine Hat had the edge in digs with 84 compared to 77 for Briercrest.

Briercrest was led by the aforementioned Peterson, Erin Anderson with a game high seven service aces and a team high three blocks, Brooke Peterson with a game high 23 digs, and Elly Wendel with a game high 14 kills.

Briercrest will now face Olds College in the fifth place game at 11:00 am local time.

Follow the games online at http://www.sportscanada.tv/index.php/ccaatv/acactv. Also, be sure to "like" Briercrest Volleyball for photos and updates.