While last year’s women’s volleyball team might have been able to overcome off nights from a key player or two and still win, this year’s team is finding out the hard way that margin for error no longer exists.

It wasn’t so much that the Blues played terribly at York’s Tait McKenzie Centre last Thursday night, but against a Yeowomen team on top of its game, a disappointing effort by U of T led to a straight games loss, 25-15, 25-22, 25-20.

“We had plenty of opportunities that we could have taken advantage of that we didn’t,” said Blues coach Kristine Drakich, who felt her players didn’t work well as a unit.

“We didn’t use the dead times to our advantage. Every time we rushed and we were late getting to the ball, late blocking. We didn’t control the pace. York controlled the pace for us.”

After leading the opening game of the match 13-10, things spiralled out of control quickly for the Blues, as York tore off 11 straight points and raced to a 25-15 opening game win.

The Yeowomen carried over that momentum into the second game, taking a 10-4 lead before the Blues finally rallied, eventually tying things up 18-18.

However, York hung on to take a 2-0 lead and the deficit proved too much to overcome for U of T.

“We were analyzing what we were doing instead of just playing and doing what we can do,” said Carrie Schram, who led the Blues with 12 digs and tied for the team lead with nine kills.

“We were thinking about it and getting nervous.”

The Blues had a pretty decent attacking game for most of the match, as Sara Pothaar matched Schram’s nine kills and the team was generally even with York when it came to hits.

However, the eight service aces by the Yeowomen compared to one for U of T was a telling statistic, as were the 11 return errors the Blues committed.

“That’s probably collectively the worst passing game we’ve had,” said Drakich.

York proved why they are the sixth ranked team in the CIS, playing a mostly error free match and using the momentum to their full advantage when it was on their side.

“They executed very well and they were really solid throughout,” said Schram.

The Blues will take a break for December before hosting the annual Toronto tournament the first weekend in January.