The Briercrest Clippers went for game number two against the Medicine Hat Rattlers at the Margaret P. Reimer Memorial gym today and came out as the champions. The game consisted of five sets with the Rattlers winning the first two and Briercrest making an enormous comeback to win the final three sets and the game 3-2 (23-25, 22-25, 25-17, 25-11, 15-11)!

The first set was opened up in a very close fashion, with the Rattlers just keeping ahead. Mikayla Reinhardt started off the first set with several strong hits to keep Briercrest right in with the opposition. With Medicine Hat holding 22 points and the home team at 18 they began to make a come back and at 21 for Briercrest Kathleen Bruce hit a crucial spike to keep them in the set. Unfortunately, the Clippers couldn’t catch up to the Rattlers and lost the first set 25-23. 

In the second set the Rattlers won the first points and gained an 8-2 lead before Briercrest called for a time-out. Erin Anderson came out of the time-out and got the serve back for her team after the Rattlers were unable to return her kill. Reinhardt received a block and then a hit to get Briercrest within two points. The Rattlers took a minor lead before they lost their momentum and enabled Briercrest to make it a point-to-point set with them one point behind. Rattlers picked up their lost points and finished the second set 25-22. 

Another close set followed the first two having long game points almost every round. The third had Briercrest holding the lead with a few points. With their lead continuing at 14-8, the Rattlers called a time-out. A long point concluded in Janae Rapley getting a huge kill and getting the Clippers excited and full of energy. Briercrest picked up a strong lead and were able to win the set that they needed to stay in the game with a final score of 25-17!

Briercrest started off the fourth set strong with kills by Rapley and Laura Cornelsen quickly in the beginning. Medicine Hat called a time-out with Briercrest holding a lead of 14-8. Anderson worked to get a huge block for her team and continued to keep them high above the opposition. Briercrest forced a huge gap and made it near impossible for the Rattlers to catch up and win the set, enabling them to go into a fifth and final set with a score of 25-11.

The fifth set began with the Rattlers up by just a few points. But a time-out was called by Medicine Hat with Briercrest winning 6-5. The Rattlers were the first to 8 and caused the court change. With a couple of hits from Rapley and Reinhardt the Clippers come back to be at a tied game with 10-10. A huge block by Kathleen Bruce allows Briercrest to be up 14-11 and ultimately get the last point and win the game with a score finale of 15-11 for Briercrest!

The player of the game for the Medicine Hat Rattlers was number 10 Nicole Cooper and for the Briercrest Clippers was number 3 Erin Anderson who lead the teams with 14 kills and 3 blocks. Reinhardt had 20 kills and 24 digs this game, Rapley had 8 kills and Amanda Lundquist had 24 assists for the team!

Briercrest’s next game is January 16-17 at Lethbridge College.

If you are unable to make it out to support Briercrest live, access acac.tv where you can find the online broadcast there. For up to date information on the Briercrest volleyball team, “like” the Briercrest Volleyball facebook page.