Trojans move into first with win over Rattlers

CALGARY, ALTA., (Nov. 2, 2019) - The SAIT Trojans men's volleyball team finished off their sweep of the Medicine Hat College Rattlers on Saturday night.

The Trojans defeated their guests 3-1 (25-14, 25-16, 23-25, 25-19) in Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) action played inside SAIT's Campus Centre to move to 6-1 on the season - putting them on top of the league's South Division.

"I think we were really good about keeping a level head tonight, even when adversity hit," said Trojans outside Mark Anderson (5th year, Calgary, Bachelor of Business Administration). "We knew they were going to come out strong after beating them (3-0) Friday night. . . We slipped a bit the third, but we were able to hit the reset button pretty quick."

The loss sends the Rattlers home with a 1-5 record on the year.

Earlier in the week, the Trojans found themselves the centre of attention after the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) ranked them No. 1 in all of Canada. While not necessarily surprised by the ranking, Anderson understands what comes with it.

"We know that we're going to get every team's best each night because of it," he explained. "But, it's going to push us to make ourselves better. That's why keeping a level head throughout is going to be so important going forward."

In the match, SAIT took Sets 1 and 2 pretty quickly before taking their foot off the gas in the third. When Medicine Hat captured the set 25-23, the Trojans did not take it lightly. 

By the time people settled into the fourth set, SAIT had already amassed a 10-1 lead. From there, it was just a matter of time.

"We knew right away that we were the better team, and we just need to have confidence in that throughout the whole match," Anderson stated. "We were able to get back to that in the fourth and get the win."

Anderson led the Trojans with 12 kills and four service aces. Teammate Jarett Noel (3rd year, Calgary, Geographic Information Systems) added 15 kills and 11 digs.

KeAndre Evans paced the Rattlers with a game-high 16 kills.

The Trojans will take the court again this week with a pair of road games across town at Ambrose University on both Thursday and Friday nights.