Mitch SorensenAfter entering the month of January undefeated, the Pandas have hit their first major rough patch of the season. After a series split with Trinity Western and losing twice to UBCO on the road earlier this month, the Pandas arrived back in Edmonton looking to right the ship.
That process started out well, as the Pandas pummelled the 11-3, No. 9 CIS ranked Thunderbirds in the first match. With only one of the sets having a closer margin of victory than seven points, head coach Laurie Eisler’s team rolled to a 3-0 straight sets win.
With a team hitting percentage of .337 compared to UBC’s .143, the Pandas also out-blocked the visitors from Vancouver 10-3. Both Meg Casault and Karly Janssen hit double-digit kill figures in the win, and setter Mariah Walsh notched 32 assists. With her 17.5 points, Casault hit the 1,000 career point milestone.
The next night’s match, however, saw a significantly tougher test for the Pandas, as a reinvigorated UBC team looked nothing the team that took the court Friday night. With four separate players on the T-Birds roster notching double-digit kills, UBC outhit the Pandas .269-.259, and reversed the blocking figure from the night before.
“(Friday) night we didn’t get a lot of pushback from UBC,” Eisler said. “But (on Saturday) they came back really strong, and we didn’t have a response for it. It’s something we have to be better at.”
Culminating in a fifth set that saw the Pandas lose 15-6, the Pandas seemed to run out of steam in the later stages of the game. Registering uncharacteristically low figures in assists and earned points, and ended up falling 2-3 in disappointing fashion.
“I think it was a great measure of where we were at and what we need to be better at,” Eisler said. “There’s nothing like playing top competition to expose those weaknesses.”
One of the few bright spots on the weekend came in the form of Meg Casault. The fourth-year outside hitter scored 39.5 points on the weekend, putting her over the 1,000-point mark for her Canada West regular season career. Currently second in CIS in both kills per set (4.40) and points per set (5.0), Casault also put up 18 digs across the two matches.
“She carries a lot of weight of us in really every aspect of the game,” Eisler said. “She’s had a huge impact for us.”
The Pandas are on the road next weekend and looking to gain some momentum as they come into the end of the season. They will begin this push against the 1-17 Regina Cougars.
“The good news is we still have some time left in our season to get back to work and improve,” Eisler said. “We have the foundation and that’s good, we just have to make a few improvements.”
