The Varsity Blues women’s volleyball team just made their reading week a little busier after burying the Queen’s Golden Gaels in three straight sets in OUA quarterfinal action at the Athletic Centre Friday night.
The win for the Blues, combined with their OUA best 17-2 regular season record, means they will now host the OUA women’s volleyball Final Four this upcoming weekend, Feb. 22 and 23.
After the victory, Toronto setter Kathleen Mahannah says she doesn’t mind having a little extra work in the gym during her week off from school.
“Not at all, I don’t mind,” Mahannah laughed. “We have the reading week off school and once we’re here training we’ll have some time to hang around get some things done.”
Despite the game potentially being the last in a U of T uniform for players such as Mila Miguel and Anastasia Danilova, Mahannah said she did not notice anything different in their attitude leading up to Friday’s quarterfinals.
“I think we all kind of have our eyes set on the OUA final. There wasn’t too much of a sense of worry or anything like that,” Mahannah said. “We knew what we had to get done.”
The Blues, showing lots of energy and determination, dominated the first two sets of the match, 25-17 and 25-11. However, Golden Gaels showed a little grit and determination of their own in the third set matching the Blues play throughout and even had set point leading 25-24 to potentially force a fourth set.
The Blues were able to regroup. Player of the game, Mila Miguel tied the set at 25 with her seventh kill of the match and then had a huge block on match point as Toronto took the set 27-25.
Throughout the match, Mahannah did well to spread the ball around to her hitters as all five had at least six kills each. Danilova led the attack with 12 kills and libero Michelle Wood had another solid performance with 16 digs.
Varsity Blues Head coach Kristine Drakich thought that perhaps her team was already thinking about hosting the Final Four before the match was over.
“We loosened up a little too much and (Queen’s) came very strong – you know they had nothing to lose – and we started to not play,” Drakich said. “We made a few unforced errors, were a little sloppy and then we got ourselves back on track.”
Drakich understands through her many years of coaching and playing that anything can happen once the playoffs role around.
“You can’t underestimate anybody at this time of year and in this game of volleyball, if you don’t come to play and the other team comes strong, anything can happen,” Drakich said.
Toronto also swept both regular season matches in three straight sets versus Queen’s. However, Drakich admitted that Queen’s played her team a lot tougher this time around in the quarterfinals and sees a bright future for the young Golden Gaels squad.
“Queen’s is a young team. Very strong though, very athletic,” Drakich said. “And of course their head coach (Joely Christian) was our assistant coach two or three years before. But they’re a good squad.”
Christian also praised her team’s efforts, as she believed they showed U of T they belong on the same court as them.
“Queen’s in the past has never been in the gym with U of T. And I think that’s a mental block we got to get over first and foremost,” Christian said. “I think I have a great crop of first years that believe we can be as good or better then U of T.”
Toronto will now spend the week practicing at home in preparation for the OUA semifinals versus the Waterloo Warriors this Friday at the Athletic Centre. The Blues beat the Warriors in three straight sets back on Nov. 25 in Toronto.
