The message from University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s volleyball head coach Mark Dodds was clear at practice on Thursday night, proving all doubters wrong.
As the Huskies begin their 2024-25 Canada West season, they’ve been ranked 11th overall in the conference’s pre-season coaches poll after a less-than-stellar exhibition season and an 8-16 record last year.
“I’m not going to lie it was a bit of a bumpy pre-season,” said Dodds. “We’re a young team and trying to figure out what our identity is going to be, and how we’re going to play this year. Some ups and downs in the pre-season, but a lot of learning.”
The Huskies’ roster saw plenty of turnover in the off-season with key pieces like Olivia Mattern, Jolene Sibley and Devyn Ethier moving on from the program, as well as rising star Sophia Magus transferring to join the rival University of Alberta Pandas.
That’s forced the team to rely on a crop of first- and second-year players to help carry the load.
“I’ve been training with some of them for quite a while now with our old club teams,” said third-year outside hitter Rosie Cyr. “They feel like family, they came in very confident and that’s great.”
Among the incoming players who will be hitting the court for the Huskies is first-year Australian Ella Milne, who transferred to the program after playing NCAA volleyball at Hofstra University.
The path to becoming a playoff team again will be a challenge for the Huskies after two years on the outside looking in, needing much greater consistency to get back to the Canada West post-season.
Dodds will be leaning on veterans like Anderson and Cyr to provide offence this season, with the knowledge that a much more cohesive effort will be needed throughout the 2024-25 season to slot into the conference’s top-eight teams by late February.
“I think when we play for ourselves it doesn’t work out as great as we would like,” said Cyr. “When we play for each other, we’re a strong knit unit. I think that is something that every team takes away and I think that is something that helps us build our season now.”
An all-Saskatchewan opening weekend awaits the Huskies, as they’ll play host to the University of Regina Cougars for a pair of games at 6:00 pm Friday and 3:00 pm Saturday at the Physical Activity Complex.