St. Albert’s Krista Zubick is attacking the volleyball net again after the fourth-year University of Alberta Panda was sideline by mononucleosis.
The healthy left-side power will give the Pandas a big boost this weekend at the Canada West Final Four championship, hosted by the UBC Thunderbirds in Vancouver.
“It’s been a different season for me. I’ve been out for a lot of the second semester and now I’m just getting back into the swing of things,” Zubick said. “It’s been a long process.”
The six-foot spiker is slowly regaining her starting spot in the Pandas line-up.
“I’ve been working my way in, starting with a little back row. Hopefully this weekend I will get a little more time in the front row.”
In the Canada West playoffs the top three finishers in the four-team draw advance to nationals next weekend at McMaster University in Hamilton. The Pandas, ranked fifth in Canada, played the No. 3 ranked Winnipeg Wesmen on Friday, but the score was unavailable at press time.
Zubick, 21, competed at nationals in her second and third years with the Pandas.
“Hopefully we can get back there again. That’s our goal.”
The Pandas finished 14-6 for second place in conference play behind the No. 1 ranked Thunderbirds (18-2).
“Our team has faced a lot of adversity this year with various injuries and sickness along the way, but overall we did an awesome job. We did what we needed to do in the second half to finish second,” said Zubick.
She joined the Pandas after three years as a dominating middle with the St. Albert Skyhawks and was the senior team’s MVP all three years at St. Albert Catholic High School.
“It was a big jump. It’s a lot faster game at this level and hopefully in my four years I’ve adjusted,” she said. “My back row and passing game has improved a lot and every year I’ve gained more court sense.”
Zubick was moved to power from middle during her freshman season.
“My first year I played left side and then the next year I switched over to the right side so that was a bit of a transition, but my third and fourth years I was back to the left side,” she said. “I was always a middle in high school and with my club and provincial teams, so my first year here was kind of my first year passing and that’s what I’ve had to work on the most the last few years.”
Changing positions didn’t stop Zubick from playing right side for Canada’s developmental B team at the 26th Summer Universiade last year in Shenzhen, China.
“It was awesome. It was a really good experience. We didn’t finish as well as we had hoped but even that finish [11th overall] was one of the best finishes Canada has had in a long time,” she said. “Playing at that level really opens your eyes to the international play.”
The last two summers the two-time Academic All-Canadian in biological sciences trained with the national B team in Winnipeg after attending Volleyball Canada’s selection camp.
“Being with that calibre of players and learning from that level of coaching is great for development. Training all summer gives you a lot of touches on the ball too, which is really great,” said Zubick, who helped the Skyhawks win bronze at the 3A provincial basketball championship in Grade 12 as the team’s tallest player.
