Athletes of the Week

Payton Liske
Payton Liske

Payton Liske

Men’s Hockey

After leading the Gaels in scoring his rookie season and being chosen for the OUA All-Rookie team for his efforts in the 2009-2010 season, Payton Liske has found his second year on the Queen’s men’s hockey team somewhat less glamorous.

The forward has been on and off this season playing only nine of the team’s 18 games because of a nagging ankle injury. Many of the games he did play aggravated the injury and it forced him to take further time off. Yet things seem to be turning around for Liske.

“I’m feeling a lot better,” he said. “I made the mistake of trying to come back too early. The second time through I let it heal it completely. I gave it a good rest and Christmas break helped me tremendously.”

This past weekend was a demonstration of what Liske means to the Gaels’ offence. From the team’s victories against RMC and Toronto, Liske recorded a total of two goals and two assists as well as a shootout-winning tally.

Liske began playing hockey at the age of four in his home town of Welland, Ontario and found himself drafted in the OHL to the Owen Sound Attack at the age of 15. From there, he matured to join the St. John’s Sea Dogs in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Liske played with the Sea Dogs for three years until he was approached by Queen’s head coach Brett Gibson.

“I came down here and toured the school.” he said. “Met a quite a bit of the guys, it was a good group of people. I liked the program and I liked the school. It was a good fit for me all around.”

Lauri Kytömaa

Hanna Koposhynska

Women’s Basketball

After averaging 4.1 points per game, the women’s basketball team benefited from a career high 20 points from post Hanna Koposhynska in their win over the York Lions. Koposhynska was 9-for-14 from the field and recorded five rebounds in the Gaels’ first action back after the holidays.

At 6’2, Koposhynska was able to use her height against the York defence in creating space and opportunities for herself and her teammates.

“The other team didn’t really have anyone to go against me and my teammates did a really good job of finding me when I was open,” she said. “It was a team effort definitely.” A tournament in Montreal afforded the Gaels little rest over the holidays before they were back on the court for league play against the Laurentian Lady Vees and the York Lions. Koposhynska said the tournament went well, with the team tallying a 2-1 record.

“It was probably one of the best we’ve had that’s not been in league play,” she said. “Hopefully we can take that aggression and intensity that we had in the tournament and translate it into league play.”

Queen’s couldn’t pull off a win against the Lady Vees but rebounded with a 71-62 win over the Lions for their third victory of the season.

“[Against] Laurentian, I think we kind of didn’t play how we wanted to or how we expected,” she said. “We were just more aggressive and shared the ball really well which got everyone scoring opportunities. … I think we did a good job at pulling it together and really playing as a team against York and pulling off a win.”

Kate Bascom

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