Lady Lancer breaks volleyball record in home opener

Lancer veteran and new captain Kirsten Talsma (5) gets some help from Kristen Curtis (10) to block a spike from Fleming in exhibition action on September 26th. Talsma has just broken the service ace record, previously held by Landis Doyle of Humber. Photo by Taylor Renkema.

By Taylor Renkema

Kirsten Talsma is the face of a new record- and she didn’t even know until hours after it happened. A fifth-year Lady Lancer and setter, Talsma broke a volleyball record in the Loyalist home opener Wednesday night.

Talsma said it feels great to break the record, but she wasn’t expecting it.

“I didn’t even know until my coach texted me that night after the game,” she said. “I want to keep building on it.”

She said the record wasn’t on her mind heading into the game.

“I was just thinking about getting my team pumped up for the game,” she said.

Landis Doyle of Humber College formerly held the career service ace record with 194 career aces. Talsma now has 196, and still has 18 games left to play in her final year of eligibility.

Loyalist women and men came out on top against the Fleming Knights on Nov. 7, winning both games 3-1.

Talsma’s teammate Katie Glass said she was unstoppable.

“She’s just an unreal player and she hustles to every single ball, she gets there every single time, no complaints,” Glass said. “She gets there and she gets the ball up and makes it a playable ball.”

On the men’s side, Loyalist head coach Dave Templar said 2-year left side veteran Jared Moelker was on fire.

“He had 22 kills, and we don’t score a lot of those points without him,” he said. “He was playing a really intense match, he seemingly couldn’t be stopped.”

Men’s captain Josh Lappala said it was lucky the game didn’t go to a fifth set, like it did last time these two teams met in an exhibition match last month.

“That would have been a huge momentum swing for them, and who knows what could have happened,” he said.

Lappala said they try not to think about the overall goal.

“It’s about the little goals. We break it up into 5, 10, and 15 points and focus on that,” he said.

The Lancers travel to Peterborough on Saturday to take on the Trent Excalibur.