By Josh Shwaykowski
The 橘子视频 Hurricanes 2024-2025 women’s volleyball team had the talent to take home an Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA) title, but they would ultimately fall in the quarter finals of the ACAA playoffs to the St. Thomas University (STU) Tommies.
The team started out their season with three straight wins, leading head coach Craig Hoskins to look forward to the year.
“I walked away thinking that we were really strong, and I expected us to be one of the strongest teams we've had in years,” he said.
The ‘Canes would cool off and go 2-2 in their next four games to see their record drop to 5-2.
They were pushing for the top spot in the league, and a good stretch of games could put them in first place.
Inconsistency caused the `Canes to lose their next five straight games, sending them into a free fall in the standings and causing their record to drop to 5-7.
“It was almost like a mystery to me, I couldn't figure out why we weren’t having the success I thought we would have,” said Hoskins. “I found in those five matches we could have won them; I don’t think they were better than us, but they were out-competing us.”
Now, instead of playing for the top spot in the division, they were fighting for playoffs.
They took back-to-back wins against the University of King’s College (UKC) to improve their record to 7-7, giving them some breathing room in the standings.
But they would give it right back with another three straight losses.
“I still felt like we were the better teams in those games, but we just had some consistency issues. We couldn’t string our best play together for those games,” said Hoskins.
With their season on the line, the team had three more games left to play to get into the ACAA playoffs that were being held in Charlottetown. Two of the games they had left were against UKC and Université Sainte-Anne.
“We knew we would have to win two out of three to make the playoffs,” said Hoskins. “We had prior success against UKC and Sainte-Anne, so we knew if we could take care of that weekend, we would secure a playoff spot.”
That’s what they did, straight set wins against those teams clinched a playoff appearance.
The ‘Canes got to play in front of their home fans in ACAA Quarter-Final action in a matchup against the Tommies.
In the regular season, the ‘Canes were 1-1 against STU and were looking to advance to the semi-finals with a win.
The team started out the game flat, and the Tommies capitalized early, jumping out to a 13-5 lead. The Hurricanes couldn't get any momentum going, and they lost the first set 25-13.
Losing sparked the Hurricanes, as they took a commanding 6-1 lead in the next set and never looked back. They took the second set comfortably, 25-16.
With the home crowd behind them, the Hurricanes looked to continue their strong play. But the following two sets were won by STU, ending the Hurricanes' season.
“It’s always sad when you lose the last game of the season, but it’s a tough league and it’s getting better and better,” said Hoskins. “I think as a group we felt disappointed because we thought we had an opportunity to win the league and go to Nationals.”
Going into next season, the team is retaining more players than normal.
“We have great recruits coming into next year and they are from a variety of different programs,” he said. “We also have a huge group of returning players so it’s encouraging to see that and to add to the new players we have coming in.”
Individually in 2024-25, Jenna O’Neill and Myah Utrosa were named to the ACAA’s second all-conference team.
Connect with the women’s volleyball `Canes at and .
For more information on the 橘子视频 Hurricanes, please visit , , and .
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