Three Stars: Ivicak, Simard, Daigle earn honours
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Women's basketball student-athlete Kayla Ivicak is the MacEwan Athletics first star of the week after posting back-to-back double-doubles in leading the Griffins to a weekend sweep of the Mount Royal University Cougars.
Ivicak recorded 34 points and 33 rebounds combined in MacEwan's victories over MRU, becoming the Griffins' career leading scorer in Canada West women's basketball competition in the process.
Other athletes recognized this week include second star Ashton Simard of the women's curling team and third star Marc-Olivier Daigle of the men's hockey team.
Both Ivicak and Daigle are being recognized for the second time this season. Ivicak was previously named second star on Nov. 13, while Daigle was MacEwan's third star of the week on Oct. 16. Simard is making her first appearance of 2018-19 season.
1st star: Kayla Ivicak, G, women's basketball
St. Albert, AB, fifth-year, Commerce
The senior guard put the Griffins on her back and led them to two huge wins at Mount Royal University with her fourth and fifth double-doubles of the 2018-19 season.
In Friday's 73-66 win, Ivicak had a monster multi-cat performance, leading the Grifins with 21 points and 19 rebounds, adding three assists and four steals. In the process, she became MacEwan's new all-time career points leader in Canada West competition.
After scoring 13 points and adding 14 rebounds in Saturday's 69-54 win, she now has 862 points in a university career that began in 2014-15, MacEwan's first in Canada West competition.
Ivicak also now has 18 double-doubles in her career, which is also a MacEwan record.
For the season, the 5-foot-8 guard is third in Canada West in rebounds/game (10.7), tied for seventh in steals/game (2.2) and sits 32nd in points/game (11.4).
2nd star: Ashton Simard, women's curling
Chauvin, AB, fourth-year, Commerce
The fourth-year skip led MacEwan's women's rink to a sizzling 5-1 record at the ACAC Fall Regional event in Red Deer over the weekend.
With wins over Lakeland (6-3), Concordia (6-3), Olds (5-4), NAIT (5-3) and UAlberta-Augustana (9-1) and a loss to Red Deer College (9-5), the Griffins posted the top record of the bonspiel and are in the driver's seat for a berth in the ACAC Championship in February.
Simard's excellent reading of the ice conditions and solid shot-making steered her rink of third Erin Wells, second Andie Kurjata, lead Taitan Hagglund and alternate Rebecca Bartz to the top of a tough ACAC field.
She shot a cool 75 per cent over the course of the weekend, but was especially proficient with her hitting game, where she reached over 80 per cent.
Ashton Simard led the Griffins women's curling rink to a 5-1 record at the ACAC Fall Regional in Red Deer (Jefferson Hagen photo).
3rd star: Marc-Olivier Daigle, G, men's hockey
Delson, QC, fourth-year, Commerce
Manning the MacEwan nets for two games against their biggest rival – the NAIT Ooks – Daigle stopped 51 out of 55 shots, giving his team a chance to win.
Although they lost both, the reigning ACAC playoff MVP had another strong performance, consistently repelling the Ooks' attack.
In Friday's 2-1 loss at the NAIT Arena, Daigle made 26 of 28 saves for a .929 save percentage.
In Saturday's 3-1 loss at the Downtown Community Arena – a score which included an empty-net tally with one second left – Daigle stopped 25 of 27 for a .926 stat-line.
For the season, Daigle continues to lead the ACAC with a 1.78 goals against average and .938 save percentage.
Marc-Olivier Daigle stopped 51 of 55 shots against NAIT this past weekend (Matthew Jacula photo).
