When she stands up in front of her Grade 5 class at École St. Thomas for the final phase of her teaching practicum, Rustlers Seanna Trumier can tell those students about a sporting triumph in Lloydminster.
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Trumier and the rest of the Lakeland Rustlers women’s volleyball team rattled off 11 straight victories to grab the fourth and final playoff position in the North Division of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC).
The Rustlers clinched the berth with win No. 10 last Friday in Edmonton in the first of back-to-back 3-0 sweeps over the North’s second-place NAIT Ooks (12-5) in a home-and-home series last weekend.
“One of my students came to watch on the weekend,” said Trumier, who taught the same Grade 5 class during an earlier practicum.
“The kids know me, and one of them came to support me on the weekend, which is super sweet.”
It was a sweet Valentine’s Day victory for the Rustlers as they fashioned an improbable run to qualify for the conference playoffs and earn another shot at gold-medal glory. Lakeland’s women have won the past three championships at the ACAC and the CCAA (Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association) levels.
On the court, at least, Lakeland went 11-0 this regular season. In the standings, however, the Rustlers’ record is listed as 11-8, including their forfeits from an eight-game ACAC disciplinary suspension that sidelined them until late November.
Since then, the national champions have been on a mission to keep their winning ways intact, and in the process extend the collegiate careers of the three seniors — Trumier, Avery Bates and Emma Jeffs.
Now, the Rustlers are off for the final weekend of the regular season, giving them extra time to prepare for the ACAC championship tournament, set for Feb. 27 through March 1 in Camrose.
“I feel like it gives us two weeks here to prepare,” said Trumier, a fifth-year libero from Prince Albert, Sask. “It allows us to practise things that we need to work on. Then, the weekend gives us time to recover and to refresh and to be ready to go. It’s perfect timing.”
While her students are enjoying February break this week, the budding teacher has a to-do list to ready for a return to the classroom next week.
“I’m in that classroom until May, teaching,” Trumier said. “I have this week off to prepare — lesson plan and unit plan and everything for my students — then, I’ll be back in the classroom, teaching every day, starting the 23rd.”
In their opening match at the ACAC championships, the Rustlers are expected to meet the South Division’s Red Deer Queens (15-2) at 3 p.m. Friday, Feb. 27.
“We haven’t played them yet this year, so I feel we’ll do our due diligence getting to know the team and show up as prepared as we can,” Trumier said. “Continue to do what we’ve been doing, and I think we should find success.”
The Rustlers found consistent success during the past three months, capped with their 3-0 wins over NAIT on Friday (25-12, 25-14 and 25-14) in Edmonton and Saturday (25-17, 25-15 and 25-13) in Lloydminster.
“I think that we knew we had the ability to stack points and to be really strong for long periods of time against teams,” said Trumier, noting the Rustlers only lost two sets all season. “So, I think that we could always keep that in the back of our mind, knowing that we had that ability as a group.
“I think we came (into the NAIT series) very prepared, knowing the options on the other side, and that allowed us to block and defend against that team. So, yeah, I feel that led us to the success that we had on the court.”
That confidence in clutch situations in the latter part of the season keyed Lakeland’s entry into the playoffs. With the Rustlers’ spot secured Friday, there was a sense of relief Saturday for their final match of the season at home.
“Throughout the season, we always knew the talent and success that we could have, and being able to show it through those 11 games was a relief that all of the hard work we did to get to that point was worth it,” Trumier said. “And we were able to show that in how we played.
“It was definitely a confidence boost, and also a relief at the same time, knowing that we could go into our home gym for the very last time this season, and just enjoy being there, playing together.”
The Augustana Vikings became the playoff host after the ACAC stripped Lakeland of those rights, as part of the sanctions issued last October. As they head to Camrose for that championship tournament, Trumier and the Rustlers aren’t dwelling on the lost opportunity to host.
“I would say we aren’t necessarily thinking about that, but we can come in with that sense of confidence to know that we had all those games taken away, and we can still be dominant and successful,” she said.
MEN’S VOLLEYBALL
Trumier’s cousin, Ian Cousin of Hoey, Sask., is part of the men’s volleyball Rustlers, who also made a serious push for a playoff berth.
Ultimately, the youthful Lakeland squad came up short, losing both matches against NAIT last weekend to fall out of contention in the ACAC men’s playoff race.
The Rustlers (7-12, including four losses via forfeit) finished fifth in the North Division.
The second-place Ooks (12-5) are among the top three teams in the North, entering the final weekend of regular-season play.
Last weekend, NAIT defeated Lakeland 3-0 (25-18, 25-19 and 25-17) on Saturday in Lloydminster and 3-1 (25-20, 25-12, 23-25 and 25-17) on Friday in Edmonton.
The male Rustlers went 5-5 down the stretch.
“I would say it’s always difficult coming into a league when there’s 23, 24, 25-year-olds playing against younger athletes like that, but I feel like the boys came out very strong and they were giving it their all,” Trumier said about those fellow Lakeland student-athletes. “That’s all you can ask for. They’re very athletic and talented, so I think they’ll have no problem in their future.”
WOMEN’S HOCKEY
Lakeland (21-2), the pennant-winner in ACAC women’s hockey, concludes its regular-season schedule this weekend with a pair of home games against the fifth-place SAIT Trojans (6-17). Those matchups are scheduled for 7:15 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday at the Hub’s Co-op Community Arena.
On the following weekend, the reigning-champion Rustlers host the fourth-place Medicine Hat Rattlers (9-14) in their best-of-three opening-round playoff series.
BASKETBALL
In men’s basketball, Lakeland won two more games last weekend to extend its winning streak to seven. The 15-3 Rustlers topped 11-7 NAIT 79-64 on Saturday in Edmonton and 93-76 on Friday in Lloyd.
Lakeland and the Keyano Huskies are tied with identical records atop the North Division. They wrap up the regular season this weekend with two games each against lower-ranked teams. Lakeland visits the Northwestern Wolves (2-16) of Grande Prairie and Keyano entertains Augustana (4-12) in Fort McMurray.
Lakeland hosts the eight-team ACAC men’s basketball championship on the March 5-7 weekend.
In women’s basketball, the winless Rustlers dropped both contests to NAIT (15-3) — 115-42 on Saturday in Edmonton and 85-28 on Friday in Lloydminster. On the final weekend of the regular season, Lakeland visits Northwestern on Friday and Saturday in a two-game battle of 0-18 teams.
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