Rattlers still hanging onto fourth

By RYAN MCCRACKEN on February 10, 2020.

NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN
Medicine Hat Rattlers’ Brooke Christie hits a shot while Lethbridge Kodiaks Claire Armstrong (7) and Reegan Molenaar (18) leap for a block during an Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference women’s volleyball match on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2020 at the Snake PIt.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken

The Medicine Hat Rattlers women’s volleyball team fell one set short of a bounce-back victory on Saturday night at the Snake Pit, but they’re still in control of fourth in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference’s South Division standings.

The loss serves as Medicine Hat’s sixth in a row, but head coach Kim Stonehouse says she was happy with the intensity her team brought to the floor against a Lethbridge Kodiaks squad with nothing to lose.

“The nice thing is we’re still in that fourth spot,” said Stonehouse, whose Rattlers fell in five sets to the Kodiaks, 21-25, 24-26, 28-26, 19-25, 15-10. “Lethbridge played a great game. They’re a team with nothing to lose right now. That’s a hard team to play against. I thought they did a great job, and I liked that we were able to come back and win that fourth set and force it to a fifth set. We just get a little bit tight when the match gets close. We’re going to keep working on that in practice and cleaning up a few things.”

Fourth place is typically the final playoff spot in the ACAC South, but the Rattlers have already punched their ticket to provincials as hosts of the championship tournament at the end of the month – leaving Medicine Hat with four games to work out any remaining kinks.

“As long as we can compete and keep that level of compete up, that’s what I think is going to help us going into the post-season,” said Stonehouse. “We’ve got some players out with injuries so that can definitely affect us a little bit. I don’t think it was the determining factor but that’s definitely something that’s going on for us right now … They’ll be OK, it’s just some sickness going around the team, nothing really big.”

The ACAC championship tournament will serve as a fitting farewell for fifth-year leaders Shaya Suchy and Amber Stigter. Suchy holds the ACAC record for career digs – now at 1,468 following a 25-dig performance Saturday – while Stigter has been a driving force behind the team’s offence for years and is averaging 2.59 kills per set this season, including a total of 16 against Lethbridge.

“It means everything, especially going out with a bang,” Stigter said of hosting the ACAC championship. “Seeing as we’re on our home court, it’s exciting because it’s going to be our last games on home court too. It can’t really get any better than that.”

But there’s still some business to tend to first. Medicine Hat hosts Ambrose to open a home-and-home set next weekend before closing out the regular season with two games in Red Deer against the Queens. The Rattlers (8-12) still hold a four-point edge on Lethbridge (6-14) for fourth, and Stigter says they’d like to keep it.

“We need to go into these games as hard as we can,” she said. “We know it’s only going to get tougher from here.”

Jamie Brown led Lethbridge with 13 kills in Saturday’s victory, while Mack Lewicki dug out 22 on defence.

Men’s volleyball

Medicine Hat’s men’s volleyball team suffered a similar fate on Saturday night at the Snake Pit, falling in five sets to Lethbridge (27-25, 25-22, 25-27, 23-25, 15-11) for their sixth consecutive loss.

Aleksa Zivic led Medicine Hat with 17 kills in the loss, while Ty Moline and Jovan Stepanovic shared the load on defence with 10 digs apiece. The Rattlers slipped to 4-16 with the loss.

Carter Hansen did the heavy lifting for Lethbridge, logging 28 kills to help the Kodiaks improve to 17-3 with their seventh straight victory.

Women’s basketball

The Medicine Hat Rattlers women’s basketball team fell back to the .500 mark with a 76-66 loss to the Broncos on Saturday in Olds.

Guard Rhiannon Ware led Medicine Hat with 20 points, including a perfect 10-for-10 outing from the free-throw line. Katelyn Rozdeba followed up with 14 points and added 17 rebounds for the double-double.

Brittney Thibeaux powered Olds to the win with a 35-point performance, adding a team-high nine rebounds in the process. The Broncos improved to 15-1 with the win, their 13th in a row.

Medicine Hat (9-9) is now tied with Lethbridge (9-8) for third in the ACAC South with three games left in the regular season. Red Deer sits two points back in fifth, however the Rattlers have already earned a berth into the post-season as hosts of the provincial tournament in March.

Men’s basketball

The Rattlers men’s basketball team strung together a second consecutive victory on Saturday night in Olds.

Kieron Burgess led Medicine Hat with 17 points and 13 rebounds while Eidan Jonker added 16 points and Zavier Croft put up 14 from the bench. The back-to-back wins ended an eight-game losing streak.

Landon Parrington led the Broncos with 30 points in the loss. Colton Murrell had 13 rebounds and Muktar Mohamed added 22 from the bench.

The Rattlers climbed to 4-14 with the victory. Olds slipped to 1-15.

Medicine Hat College’s basketball teams return to the Snake Pit Saturday to host the St. Mary’s Lightning at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.