The good news for the Varsity Blues women’s volleyball team is that they have now experienced first hand the quality of opponents they will have to defeat to repeat their strong showing at last year’s CIS championships—the bad news is U of T did not prove they could beat any of the top teams they faced at this past weekend’s U of T National Invitational Tournament.

The Blues did beat Winnipeg in the round robin 3-1 (26-24, 23-25, 21-25, 25-21, 15-13) for their only win in five matches at the tournament, and that was the one team U of T finished ahead of, going 1-4, while the Wesmen finished last in the five team field with an 0-4 record. U of T also gave eighth ranked and defending CIS bronze medallist Laval a scare, pushing them to five games in the best performance by the Blues on the weekend, but could not quite finish off the Rouge et Or, losing the match 3-2 (19-25, 25-15, 21-25, 25-22, 15-8).

Perhaps the biggest blow of the exhibition tournament, though, was that U of T lost twice to cross-town and OUA rival York, losing six of the seven games played against them combined. Add to that a Yeowomen straight games win over the Blues in the last OUA league game before the Christmas break, and that means York is riding a three-match winning streak against the Blues, during which U of T has only managed to win one game out of 10.

In spite of that recent trend, the Blues players were still talking confidently after losing the third place match to the Yeowomen 3-1 (25-10, 19-25, 25-20, 25-17) in the last contest for the two teams at the tournament. When asked whether she thought York had gained a psychological advantage based on winning the last few meetings, U of T’s Rebecca Moskowitz responded sharply.

“I don’t think they should, because in the past when the going gets tough they tend to fall back a bit,” said Moskowitz, alluding in part to an upset loss at home in the OUA quarter-finals last season to Ottawa after York finished the regular season first in the OUA East.

U of T coach Kristine Drakich did not have any barbs to direct at York, but did suggest afterwards that it is too early in the season to be judging who the top teams in the league are. Drakich said that the chance to play high quality competition at this stage is more important than the results.

“It’s a great way to start (the second half of) the season and get ourselves back into competition form very early because the second half goes by very quickly. We don’t have much time to get ready, prepared, so this is great for us,” said Drakich who was pleased to pack a lot of matches into a compact space. “We get five matches in one weekend. Normally it would take us five weeks to get five matches.”

In their other round robin matches, U of T lost Friday night to York 3-0 (25-13, 25-22, 25-21) and on Saturday, after an early afternoon loss to Laval, lost 3-0 to eventual champion Manitoba (25-15, 25-16, 25-17).

A good example of how little early season results can mean would probably be Laval, who is off to a dismal 2-5 start in the OQIFC, but who proved this weekend why they are still a nationally ranked and dangerous team. The Rouge et Or started off the tournament with a bang Friday afternoon by upsetting the nation’s number two ranked team and defending CIS champ, Manitoba 3-1 (25-20, 22-25, 25-23, 25-23) and proceeded to go a perfect 4-0 in round robin play. That set up a gold medal rematch with the Bison which Manitoba won 3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-15) The two teams have developed something of a rivalry after host Manitoba upset top-seeded Laval in last season’s CIS championship semi-final, coming back from two games down to win 3-2.

The Blues are not in nearly as bad shape in regular season play as Laval, holding a 6-3 record, good for a second place tie in the OUA East with Ottawa, and trailing only York, who they will play in their next home game, Tuesday, January 14.