The Varsity Blues women’s volleyball team beat McMaster Sunday afternoon at the Sports Gym in what their coach characterized as their best performance of the season, but a lack of help from the teams facing their playoff race rivals means a wild and woolly dash for the post-season is shaping up in the OUA East.
U of T looked very impressive in disposing of the visiting Marauders in straight games, as the home side’s dominance in play increased as the match progressed in a 25-20, 25-17, 25-14 victory.
The Blues played a much cleaner match than their erratic opponent as U of T made just seven errors, as opposed to 22 by McMaster (6-9), en route to the win. The win raised U of T’s record to 9-5, but two other OUA East opponents recorded a pair of wins on the weekend to play catch-up and tie the Blues for second place. As a result, the Blues and Queen’s both share 9-5 records, while Ryerson is tied with both teams with 18 points with a 9-6 record. Meanwhile, Ottawa, the team U of T beat in the OUA final last season, are nipping at the heels of their East division rivals with an 8-6 record and 16 points.
Three of these four teams will likely make the playoffs, though 6-9 Lakehead has not been eliminated from playoff contention, either. Only 14-2 York are sitting pretty, having clinched first place in the regular season.
While McMaster brought Arin Bush, the number two player in the CIS in kills, to the Sports Gym to face the Blues, it was U of T’s Carrie Schram and Sara Pothaar who would put on a power display in neutralizing the Marauders’ big weapon. Schram led the offensive attack with a match high 13 kills and also led all players with 15 digs at the defensive end, all without making a single error, but said she didn’t realize the statistical ranking of Bush.
“Until you told me, I was totally unaware of the statistics for that player,” said Schram, who said she doesn’t read opponents’ statistics. “I’m more concerned about us focusing on what we need to get done.”
Pothaar, meanwhile, added 11 kills of her own, saving Schram and the rest of the team the trouble of digging many McMaster kill attempts by coming up with five stuff blocks.
The Blues blunted the potency of the Marauders’ attack often right at the net, with eight stuff blocks as a team, while the visitors were shut out in that department. While Blues coach Kristine Drakich was very pleased with what she called “probably our best game of the season in terms of playing as a unit,” she acknowledged that the Marauders helped out the cause greatly.
“Their setter likes to play the middle, but they mistimed their plays and made a lot of errors,” said Drakich. The Blues will have to keep up their strong play down the stretch to not only secure a playoff spot, but to try and clinch second place in the division, which would give them home court advantage in their first post-season match.
