Myrte Schön going up for the defense.
Third year Outside Hitter Myrte Schön makes her first appearance in the AOTW column this year after a dominating outing two weekends ago that saw the Heat women’s volleyball team crush the Saskatchewan Huskies in a weekend sweep. This was the first time the Heat secured back-to-back victories in league play this season.
On the first night in Saskatchewan, Myrte notched a match-high 15 kills and six digs for her team. She followed that the next night with another 15 kills to go along with her three service aces for the night.
“Myrte was all but unstoppable again tonight,” her coach Steve Manuel said after the Saturday night match. She was the top gun for starting setter Chandler Proch that night.
Myrte had been battling injury the last few weeks, but coach Manuel thinks that she is recovering nicely: “Myrte’s been injured and playing the last few weeks with a pulled abdominal. She’s been taped up and she hasn’t been able to reach back and swing at the ball. She’s feeling a lot better, she’s worked through it and I think she’s pretty much over it. She’s able to get that extra five or ten per cent jump in her swing and that’s the difference.”
Nate Speijer
Fan favourite Nate makes his sophomore appearance in AOTW after managing to find his groove on the road and help his team dispatch the University of Saskatchewan Huskies on the road two weekends ago in order to put their playoff ambitions into their own hands (hopefully by the time you read this, the Heat have dispatched the TRU WolfPack and are heading to their first Canada West playoffs appearance).
After dropping the Friday night matchup with the Huskies, the Heat battled an intensely contested five-set match that the Heat won 18-16 to keep them alive in the playoff race the next night. Nate led the match with 22 kills and 5 big service aces en route to the team’s victory.
Through to the weekend against the Huskies, Nate led his team with 235 kills (Riley McFarland follows at 196) and 17 service aces (Greg Niemantsverdriet follows at 11).
With hopes that the boys made it to the playoffs, it looks like UBCO’s heavy hitters in Nate and Riley may finally have found their stride on the road in time.
