AROUND OUA: Gryphons sweep Lakers to pick up first win on new court

SCOREBOARD

Brock 2 @ Windsor 3

Nipissing 0 @ Guelph 3

Gryphons sweep Lakers to pick up first win on new court

GUELPH, ON - The 2016-17 season has, to this point, been a bit of a roller coaster ride at times for the Gryphons men's volleyball team. Fortunately, the ups have far outweighed the downs. On Sunday afternoon on their home court, the team took yet another step up. The Gryphons snapped a three-game skid by winning in straight sets over the visiting Nipissing Lakers. Set scores were 25-21, 25-18 & 25-17. With the result, the Gryphs improve to 7-4. For Nipissing meanwhile, it marked just their third loss of the season. The Lakers now sit at 8-3, tied for 2nd in the OUA's East Division.

November was a memorable month for the Gryphons. The team went a perfect 6-0 and climbed into the national rankings. Unfortunately, the way the team followed up that month of November was, in a word, forgettable. The Gryphons started 2017 with three straight losses on their new home court. On Sunday afternoon however, they put together arguably their best performance of the season and as a result, swept a talented Nipissing squad in straight sets. 

"It was a massive win for us, not only in the standings but also mentally to really get the guys back on track to really get back into the winning," said Gryphons head coach Cal Wigston after the match. The victory marked the Gryphons first 'W' on their new home court. "We definitely wanted to get that first one out of the way and get into the win column in our new home. The monkey is off our back now. That was a big win for our guys."

Offensively, the Gryphons were on point from the get-go on Sunday. As a team, the Gryphons posted a season-high hitting percentage of .440 (compared to Nipissing's hitting percentage of just .197). The impressive performance on the attack did not go unnoticed by U of G head coach Cal Wigson, "Hitting .440 is massive. I thought Zach (Newman) had a career night. Jared (Harris) had a massive bounce-back game. Overall, the guys were just fantastic today hitting." 

Zach Newman racked up an impressive .688 kill percentage to go along with his team-high 13 points. Jared Harris had 7 kills and a team-high 8 digs. Josh Green finished with 12 points. 

The Gryphons now have six games remaining on their regular season schedule, with next three coming on home court. Up next, a Friday night (Feb. 3) matchup with the Waterloo Warriors. The Gryphons will be looking to sweep the season series with the Warriors after winning at U of W back on November 10. Following the Friday night game versus Wateloo, the Gryphons be right back in action again on the Saturday (Feb. 4) with a 2pm match versus the Windsor Lancers.

Source: Guelph Gryphons

Lancers edge Badgers

After falling in three straight sets to the visiting McMaster Marauders on Saturday afternoon, the Lancer men's volleyball team edged the Brock Badgers 3-2 on Sunday for their second win of the season. 
 
Heading into a three game road trip, the Lancers are 2-8 on the season to sit tied for fifth in the west division with the Badgers. 
 
SATURDAY
Windsor came out strong early with big hits from John Moate and Brad Gyemi, however McMaster's starters were able to show their skills and keep the game close throughout the set. A few unlucky errors late in the set for Windsor gave the visitors the 25-22 win.
 
In the second set, Gabriel Burlacu held up the back line for the Lancers against a tough MAC offense, while Pierce Johnson played smart at the net, finding the wear spots in the Marauder defense to tally four kills in the set. Once again however, some late unforced errors put the Lancers behind as the Marauders went on to win the set 25-19.
 
Windsor saw some great defense from Roland Bouchard to keep them neck in neck early in the set. Their high energy and quick feet kept the Marauders on their toes as Windsor fought until the very end. However, McMaster's skill and experience eventually won out as they swept the game 25-21.
 
Johnson led the way for the Lancers with 9 kills and 2 digs, while Gyemi chipped in 7 kills and Moate had 6 kills, 1 block and 3 digs.
 
SUNDAY
The Lancers opened the game with a bang, racking up nine kills and easily taking the first set 25-10. 

Windsor was unable to carry that momentum into the second set, as the Badgers stepped up their passing and got two huge blocks from Matthew Ragogna to complete the set and tie the game. 

In the third, Moate led the Lancers with 5 kills and 3 blocks to help Windsor take the set 25-20 before the Badgers retaliated in the fourth to win the set 25-18 and send it into a deciding set. 

Moate again led the way for the Blue & Gold with some strong hits and consistent serving. The Badgers collected a number of unforced errors late in the set and the Lancers used that to their advantage to seal the win. 

UP NEXT
Windsor hits the road for their next three games and will play the Western Mustangs on Saturday night at 8:00pm in London. The game can be seen live at www.oua.tv.

Source: Windsor Lancers