Rattlers ready to bounce back

By Ryan McCracken on October 27, 2017.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

The Medicine Hat Rattlers are ready to bounce back.

The Rattlers followed up last Friday’s five-set victory over the SAITTrojans at the Snake Pit with a four-set loss on the road Saturday, and libero Kreggan Scharnatta thinking they simply need to be better when the heat is on.

“In those tight situations, those are when we need to work together the most, shake things off,” said Scharnatta, whose Rattlers host the Ambrose Lions at the Snake Pit tonight at 8 p.m. “The reffing wasn’t great, but we can’t blame the refs for all our mistakes, we have to limit our errors.”

Rattlers head coach Mark Porter says he expected a strong pushback from the Trojans on Sunday, and added it’s not the result that left him wanting more, but the response to adversity.

“I wasn’t disappointed in the loss, I was disappointed in the fact we didn’t battle harder when we got down.We didn’t show the mental toughness that we needed,” said Porter, adding it’s been a normal week of practice. “Ididn’t get after the guys any harder this week. We just talked about the importance of being able to focus on what needs to be done — staying with the system and not allowing the mind to wander off from what we’re supposed to be doing.”

Porter added the Rattlers — 3-1 on the Alberta Colleges Athletics Conference season following Saturday’s loss at SAIT — started the year with a more talented squad, but also a greener one. As a result, he expects last weekend’s setback to be an important learning tool moving forward.

“It’s more of a learning thing for us, working toward the end of the season and not allowing that to happen again,” said Porter. “It’s early in the season. Even though we are more talented than last year, we’re younger than last year.”

While the newly structured team is still building towards its full potential, Scharnatta says they’ve been building a great deal of chemistry and spurring on each other’s development.

“The first-years are definitely bringing their A game. They tell us fourth- and fifth-years critiques and we give them critiques as well,” said Scharnatta. “We’re all a team and we all play together and push each other to our limits.”

While the Lions are still looking for their first win of the season after opening the calendar at 0-2, Porter says they did some work in the offseason and should be bringing a stronger team to the court tonight.

“They’ve recruited some good players and they have quite a few guys back from last year,” said Porter, adding Lions returnee Keaton Strom always poses a threat on the court. “He can be a dominant player when he’s on.”

The Rattlers women’s volleyball team will start the evening off in search of their first win of the year against the Lions (1-1) at 6 p.m. While the Rattlers are 0-4 to start the year, three of their losses have come in five sets.

Over at Ambrose College the Rattlers men’s and women’s basketball teams will square off against the Lions after opening the season last weekend.

The women’s squad (2-0) will tip things off at 6 p.m., followed by the men (1-1) at 8 p.m. The Rattlers basketball teams will return to the Snake Pit Saturday to host the Lions, while the volleyball teams will make the trip to Ambrose.

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