Ribout, volleyball Axewomen quietly put together a good season

They just might be Acadia Athletics’ best-kept secret, and their coach, Joffre Ribout, a good candidate for one of those ‘do you know this guy?’ Master Card ads.

That the Acadia women’s volleyball team doesn’t get nearly the attention, even on campus, as their football, hockey and basketball counterparts is pretty much a given; women’s sports tend to play second fiddle to the men's.

In any talk regarding Acadia’s varsity coaching complement, Ribout - despite a successful tenure at Acadia - doesn’t get near the publicity of fellow coaches Jeff Cummins or Darren Burns.

The job done by a coach can often be overlooked in a team’s success, especially if they aren’t the kind to normally blow their own horn.

This pretty much describes Ribout, who certainly has never gotten the credit he deserves for the job he’s done.

A lot of people probably aren’t aware Ribout, who came to Acadia in 2002 from a successful career at the University of Western Ontario, has – like Burns and Cummins – also been a conference Coach of the Year.

His 2002-2003 team, mostly inherited from his predecessor, Shawn Jolemore, went 10-8 and reached the conference final against Dal. In 2003-2004, when Ribout was Coach of the Year, the Axewomen were 13-3 in the regular season, tied with SMU for first place.

It’s taken a couple of years to get back to that level, but Ribout, with effective recruiting, has quietly put together a talented squad that has, frankly, had one heck of a year, and in my view at least, should probably win him a second Coach of the Year award.

The Axewomen were 6-2 at Christmas, and though their record since then is just 7-6, four of those losses were part of an interlock weekend against the powerful Quebec conference in which AUS teams won just two of 25 matches - one of those by Acadia.

UNB, which finished the regular season with a 16-5 record (to Acadia’s 13-8) and is hosting the conference championship this weekend, is probably the favorite to win.

At the same time, Acadia’s chances certainly shouldn’t be dismissed after finishing the regular season with six straight wins, the most recent a 3-0 victory over SMU Feb. 11 in a showdown for second place with a first-round playoff bye on the line.

The win was Acadia’s first over the Huskies since Nov. 21, 2003, and succeeded in getting a major monkey off the backs of Ribout and his players.

Winning a conference title this weekend would eliminate another.

Volleyball, while it can lend itself to individual performances or accomplishments, is very much a team game, maybe more than even football, basketball or hockey. Perhaps that’s a reason the Acadia players, even the veterans, aren’t exactly household names.

If you’ve ever watched a volleyball match, particularly at this level, you know there’s a lot of strategy involved.

Acadia has done that successfully all season, a credit to both Ribout’s coaching and the contribution of veteran players like Kathryn Ellis, Pam Rogers, Megan Duncan and Christie Estabrooks, a transfer student from McMaster University in Ontario who has been one of the most efficient players in the conference.

Though the actual roster is larger, a core of 10-11 players has seen most of the action for the Axewomen this season, representing a good blend of youth and experience.

Ellis and Rogers are both in their fifth year, Duncan and Estabrooks in their fourth year, Georgia McNeil and Sarah Mayberry in their third year, Stacey Elliott and Janna Conrad in their second and Mariela Querada, Alana MacDonald and Erika Berry in their first.

The team also has a strong regional flavour: Conrad, MacDonald, Berry, Rogers, McNeil, Elliott and second-year libero Heather Ross are all Nova Scotians; Elliott, from Middleton, and MacDonald, a Horton graduate from Wolfville, are both "Valley girls."

With a strong group of returning players, including Estabrooks, who expects to be back next year for her final season of eligibility; the future looks bright for the Axewomen.