The Briercrest women’s volleyball team started the New Year on the right foot, sweeping NAIT in three straight sets, 25-21, 25-18 and 27-15.
Maintaining and commanding a strong lead throughout the first set proved a challenge for both Briercrest and NAIT. Briercrest finally began to edge NAIT at 14-14, pulling away 22-15 before NAIT called a time-out. NAIT came out and responded 22-18 but were stopped short, losing the last serve as they handed Briercrest the set-winning point, 25-21.
Briercrest came out strong in the second set, Samantha Zacharias serving Briercrest up to 4-1. NAIT retalliated, 4-4. The score remained tight until Briercrest solidified a 10-6 lead and maintained it until 15-11, NAIT closing the gap 18-17. Erin Anderson and Elly Wendel’s blocking denied NAIT any scoring opportunities as they went on to close the set, nearly uninterrupted, 25-18.

The third set opened similarly to the previous, Zacharias serving the opening four points, 4-1. Briercrest extended its lead 7-4, but NAIT responded, and from there on the teams alternated short leads 14-14. NAIT called a time out when Briercrest was up 17-14, and they commanded a short lead for the first time throughout the match 18-17. That was short-lived as Briercrest came out of their time out to regain the lead 20-18. The fight to the end was an intense one, the score evening out nearly every point before Briercrest gained control to win the third set 27-25. Starlet Peterson served the final points, dropping an ace for the final point.

Players of the game were NAIT’s Candice Hughes with seven kills and nine digs and Briercrest’s Samantha Zacharias with a high of 13 kills, an a high with five aces and 11 digs in her first ACAC start.  Briercrest had 41 kills while NAIT had 18. Briercrest had 14 aces while NAIT had five. Briercrest had 52 digs while NAIT had 43.

Briercrest looks to upset NAIT again tomorrow January 18 at 1:00pm in the Margaret P. Memorial Gymnasium. Come support our Clippers!