Trojans fall to Clippers

CARONPORT, SASK., (Nov. 23, 2019) - For only the second time this season, the SAIT Trojans men's volleyball team has tasted defeat.

The Trojans fell 3-1 (25-15, 26-24, 25-13, 34-32) to the host Briercrest College Clippers in their Saturday afternoon Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) game played in Caronport, Sask.

"I thought our guys played pretty darn good, but we started bad," said Trojans head coach Dallas Soonias. "And Briercrest played better than at any time yesterday (a 3-0 win for SAIT)."

SAIT falls to 9-2 on the year. The Clippers move their mark to 6-4.

After evening the match at 1-1 with a 26-24 victory, Soonias admits he made a mistake in Set 3, which led to a 25-13 win for the Clippers.

"I screwed us, really hard," he explained. "I put in the right lineup, but in the wrong order, so that's why we lost that set. . . The guys didn't realize until they were on the court, and neither did I, but at that time it was too late to change it. It's completely on me."

In the final set, SAIT went back to their starters and played well. Down 24-21, SAIT was sparked by the serve of Jeffrey Carreos (2nd year, Calgary, Business Administration), which brought them back to tie the match.

"Jeffrey did a great job of keeping us in it," Soonias stated.

The teams went back and forth, until the Clippers ultimately ended things with a 34-32 victory.

Tyler Latu'ila (5th year, Auckland, New Zealand, Bachelor of Business Administration) led the Trojans with eight kills and eight digs.

Karym Coleman paced the Clippers with 19 kills and three service aces.

SAIT will return to action next weekend with a home-and-home set against the Red Deer College Kings.