OTTAWA, ON-The women’s volleyball team shone brightly this past weekend by winning three out of five matches in the span of a busy four days. After claiming a 3-1 win at Queen’s on Thursday, the Blues travelled to Ottawa for the Gee Gees Invitational where they won two more matches over the three-day tournament to earn a second place finish. The strong showing comes on the heels of a three match losing streak in the early stages of the year.
On Friday, the Blues (8-5, 2nd OUA East) split a pair of round robin games beating Guelph (3-10, 4th OUA West) and losing to McGill (#7 CIS as of January 23). They proceeded to avenge a November 9th loss (3-1) to Ottawa (6-6 5th OUA East) by winning a five-set marathon Saturday night.
In the first place match on Sunday U of T fell to the McGill Martlets, 3-1 (26-24, 20-25, 25-17, 25-15), in a contest that saw the Blues start strong and lose control late in the match.
“We played very well in the first two sets,” said coach Kristine Drakich of the defending OUA champions. “They made a couple adjustments that we didn’t adjust to from the middle of the third game.”
The Blues controlled the all-important third set early on taking a 5-1 lead on the strength of strong kills by tournament all-star Sara Pothaar and an emphatic block by both Pothaar and Lindsey Elliot. The Martlets charged back to tie it at five.
At that point the teams exchanged points on their way to knotting the set at nine. McGill won the next six points to take a 15-9 lead that wouldn’t shrink below four points on their way to a 25-17 win and a 2-1 edge in games.
“We made a couple of missed serves at key times, we didn’t pass the ball very well, we had a lack of communication,” added Drakich. “It was really what we were doing that caused us some problems.”
In the decisive fourth game the score was tied at three before McGill won nine of the next 12 points to take what would prove to be an insurmountable 12-6 lead. Strong spikes and digs by Rebecca Moskowitz and tournament all-star Carrie Schram respectively closed the gap to 19-15.
However, the Blues would not record another point from then on.
“I’m really happy overall,” said Drakich moderating her tone when referring to the weekend as a whole. “I’m slightly disappointed that we didn’t finish. We sort of gave up instead of fought for it…the tournament itself has been great. We’ve played together as a team probably better than we ever have.”
The Blues return for a three-game homestand beginning with a date against McMaster (6-6, 3rd OUA West) this Sunday at 3pm in the Sports Gym. York holds first place in the OUA East with a record of 13-1 entering tonight’s game with Laurier (13-0, 1st place OUA West).
