Trojans serve Huskies a quarterfinal loss

LETHBRIDGE, ALTA., (Feb. 27, 2020) - The SAIT Trojans men's volleyball team served up an impressive victory Thursday night.

Playing in their Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Men's Volleyball Championship quarterfinal game Thursday night in Lethbridge, Alta., the Trojans used a strong service game to beat the Keyano College Huskies 3-1 (25-14, 25-22, 21-25, 25-13) to move on to the event's semifinal game Friday night.

"We've really been focusing on serve pressure the past few weeks now," said Trojans setter Maddux Greves (2nd year, Calgary, Bachelor of Business Administration), who had seven aces himself in the match. "I think us serving aggressively put them out of system.We had a real good game plan coming in, and watched a lot of video, so it seemed like we weren't caught off guard by much."

SAIT will now move on the semifinal Friday night at 8pm, where they will meet the host Lethbridge College Kodiaks, who easily beat Lakeland College 3-0 on Thursday night.

"We're pretty eager, man" Greves said with a big smile when asked how the boys are feeling after the win.

In the opening set, Maddux started at the service line for SAIT and helped his team to an early 3-0 lead.

On the defensive end, SAIT dug everything the Huskies threw at them, and it ended in a quick first set win.

After winning a tighter Set 2, SAIT watched as Keyano rebounded with a win in Set 3 to cut the lead to 2-1.

Instead of folding, the Trojans decided this game was not going to go to a fifth set.

They controlled the final set from start to finish, getting more strong serves from Greves and Tyler Latu'ila (5th year, Auckland, New Zealand, Bachelor of Business Administration).

"I grabbed the guys between the third and fourth set and told them that our job is not done yet," Greves said. "It allowed us to reset a bit and focus on fighting for every point and treat each point like its own match. We adapted to that mindset, and the score shows that."

Greves added 32 assists and nine digs in the match. Latu'ila finished with 10 kills, 11 digs and three aces.

Keyano's rookie standout Joao Cunha was kept quiet for most of the night, finishing with 12 kills and eight digs.