The Briercrest College Clippers have seen their teams find success in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference over the years, but never like this.
With the first half of the ACAC campaign in the books, all five of the Clippers crews are in contention and two of them -- men’s volleyball and hockey -- are making a serious push for first place.
Now the key will be to keep things going in a positive direction as their respective campaigns progress into the second half of the season in January and beyond.
Of course, winning is nothing unusual for the Clippers men’s volleyball team, as the defending ACAC champions and Canadian Colleges Athletic Association bronze medalists are once again near the top of the South Divison standings after a win over the University of Alberta Augustana in their most recent game back on Nov. 17.
Briercrest rolled to a 25-15, 27-25, 23-25, 25-15 victory in Camrose to improve to 9-1 and sit two points back of first-place Red Deer with two games in hand.
The Clippers' offensive leader was also absolutely no surprise, as three-time CCAA All Canadian and fifth-year veteran Karym Coleman put down 26 of his 48 kill attempts. Jackson Anderson also had a solid game with 11 kills, while veteran libero Brady Wachtel continued his defensive wizardry with 15 digs.
Briercrest is back in action during the Jan. 11 weekend when they travel to Edmonton to face NAIT.
The Clippers men’s basketball team in theory should have been in for a rough weekend against the CCAA top-ranked SAIT Trojans, but instead found themselves pulling off a heartening win on their way to a split.
Briercrest battled to a 97-89 victory on Friday before falling 97-80 in the rematch and are now 6-3 on the season, good enough for fourth place in the eight-team league.
The Clippers led 40-37 at the half in the first game and steadily pulled away after the break. Oroma Bongomin led Briercrest with 21 points, while Riley Seaborn had 17 points and eight rebounds to go with 13 points from Brolin Simes, 12 from Francis Dogani and 11 from Corbin Gengenback.
SAIT took an incredible 35-7 lead out of the first quarter in the rematch and ended up with the comfortable win despite seeing the Clippers put up 32 points of their own in the final stanza.
Shepherd-Hills had 26 points in the loss, Seaborn contributed 12 and Simes added 11.
Briercest is back in action during the Jan 12 weekend at St. Mary’s University.
The Clippers have had more than their share of tough seasons in the ACAC men’s hockey league, but the 2023-24 campaign isn’t one of them.
Briercrest split a weekend set with the Red Deer College Kings during the Nov. 24 weekend, falling 2-0 on Friday but rebounding for a 4-0 win Saturday.
The win gives the Clippers a 9-3-0-0 record with two overtime wins, good enough for second overall in the seven-team league, two points back of first place NAIT.
Dominik Tmej turned aside 33 shots in taking the narrow loss in the opener.
The shoe was on the other foot 24 hours later, as the Clippers led 2-0 after the first and 3-0 though two. Alex Worthington got the start in goal and stopped all 33 shots he faced for the shutout.
Regan Poncelet and Joshua Wiens scored in the first, while Zach Ashworth had their lone goal in the second and Caleb Grandfield closed out scoring in the final frame.
Briercrest is back in action on Jan. 6 when the host the University of Regina in an exhibition game at the Barkman Arena.
The Clippers women’s basketball team are off to a stellar start of their own but suffered a setback with two losses to SAIT.
Briercrest fell 66-63 Nov. 24 and 84-77 Nov 25 to drop to 6-3, good enough for third place in the South Division, four points back of Lethbridge for second.
Brooklyn Martens had 17 points to lead the Clippers Friday, Melissa Ellis added 10 points and Amber Fichtner nine.
The rematch saw the Clippers lead 49-40 at half before being outscored 24-10 in the third quarter as SAIT took control. Martens had 12 points to go along with 11 each from Fichtner, Ellis and Asia Wells. Madison Beattie contributed 10 points.
The Clippers are also in action at St. Marys on Jan. 12-13.
Briercrest is also in the hunt in women’s volleyball despite losing their most recent game.
The Clippers fell to 6-3 on the season with a 25-26, 25-19, 22-25, 25-17 loss to Augustana on Nov. 17, but are in second place in the South Division, six points back of Red Deer.
Faith Buhler led Briercrest with 13 kills, while Julia Beer and Rachel Stead had 12 each. Bailey Opseth had 38 assist in addition to 12 digs.
The Clippers are back in action Jan. 11 at NAIT.
