The Briercrest College Clippers were one period away from pulling off what would have been the biggest upset in Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference men’s hockey history.
But there’s a reason the NAIT Ooks finished in first place in the regular season, and when it came down to crunch time, they were able to find the goals and the wins they needed to finish off their second-round series during the Mar. 12 weekend.
The Clippers -- who claimed the sixth-and-final playoff spot after recording a 3-12-1-0 regular season record -- stunned NAIT with a 2-1 overtime win in Game 1 of their best-of-three semifinal series and just as incredibly took a 2-1 lead into the third period of Game 2 one night later.
What made the burgeoning upset so amazing? The Ooks had finished in first place in the ACAC standings with a 15-1-0-0 record, and remain one of the odds-on favourites to claim the league title.
As their record would indicate, though, NAIT knows how to win -- and they were able to respond, scoring three third-period goals to take a 4-2 win.
There were no such dramatics in Game 3 on Sunday, Mar. 13, as NAIT would lead 3-0 before the game was nine minutes old and go on to a 5-3 victory.
Jacob Arsenault was the Game 1 hero, scoring at 15:31 of overtime to give the Clippers the win. Zachary Anderson scored their lone goal of regulation, Dominik Tmej had 41 saves to earn the victory in goal.
Game 2 saw Cole Stevenson and Hayden Cordoni score power-play goals in the first six minutes to take an early lead. Tmej had 30 stops in goal.
The series finale saw NAIT leading 4-0 early in the second when Curtis Wiebe and Cordoni scored, but they’d get no closer. Tmej had 11 stops in 9:09 of work, Billy Cawthorn made 21 saves the rest of the way.
The Clippers men’s volleyball team ended up bringing home the bronze medal from the ACAC men’s volleyball Final Four in Edmonton after taking a come-from-behind 3-2 (25-19, 25-27, 19-25, 25-18, 18-16) win over The King’s University.
As is pretty much always the case, Karym Coleman led BC in kills with 33, while Davis Borden added 11. Coleman and Brady Wachtel had seven digs each.
The news wasn’t as good one day earlier, as the Clippers fell in straight sets 25-17, 25-21, 25-23 to the NAIT Ooks. Coleman had 13 kills, Wachtel five digs.
Red Deer defeated NAIT 3-1 (25-22, 24-26, 25-22, 27-25) to claim the ACAC championship.
The Clippers women’s volleyball team didn’t have as much luck as their male counterparts, as they went winless in their two Final Four contests in Red Deer.
Briercrest opened their run with a 3-1 (13-25, 25-23, 25-23, 25-23) loss to Lakeland College. Julia Beer had 14 kills for the Clippers, Faith Buhler added 11 and Reece Sorensen seven. Buhler also had a solid game defensively with 13 digs, while Savana Boot had 15 and Sorensen added 10.
The Clippers also got off to a good start in the bronze medal game but would drop another 3-1 decision, this time to The King’s University (14-25, 25-23-25-20, 25-21).
Beer had a solid contest, recording 10 kills, four service aces and 13 digs through the match.
Buhler and Sorensen had 10 kills each, Rachel Stead added nine. Their defence was also spread out, led by Boot’s 25 digs. Sorensen added 17, while Jessica Zacharias had 16 and Buhler 11.
The Red Deer Queens capped off an undefeated season with a 3-1 (25-23, 23-25, 25-14, 25-20) win over Lakeland College in the final.
