CIS women's volleyball championship: Gee-Gees fall to Spartans, place fourth

CIS Bronze Medal Game: Trinity Western Spartans (3) v. Ottawa Gee-Gees (0)

SHERBROOKE, Que. - The women’s volleyball team’s season came to an end on Saturday afternoon in Sherbrooke with a 3-0 loss to the Trinity Western Spartans in the CIS bronze medal game. The Gee-Gees placed fourth at the national championship tournament, marking the highest finish for the program in over 20 years.

Trinity Western overpowered the Gee-Gees in the first and third sets, winning 25-18 and 25-13 with impressive blocking and timely hitting from their middle attackers. Those scores bookended an emotional second set which saw the Spartans pull out a 25-20 victory.

“If this is the first step of the next cycle for our program, what a great place to start,” said head coach Lionel Woods, who is using this week’s games to look ahead to the future. “We won’t measure ourselves by this as a minimum, but this is where we got ourselves to. I told the team to be proud of the milestones that they set for this program.”

Second-year middle Alix Durivage was also taking the long view of the team’s performance. “We are so happy to have had the chance to play against these teams. I learned so much being here, especially as a middle – it’s made me stronger to read things better and see the level that we can actually go to.”

 The Gee-Gees’ historic run at the championship finished abruptly and was marred by the injury of OUA Player of the Year Karina Krueger Schwanke. The offensive leader of the team collapsed to the court midway through the second set, silencing the arena after scoring the sixteenth point of the set for Ottawa.

The last play that Schwanke was a part of helped the Gee-Gees pull within one of the Spartans after they had opened an 18-14 lead. Ottawa rallied valiantly to finish the set with a score of 25-20 thanks to fine defence which forced Trinity Western into a series of errors.

Krueger Schwanke reappeared on crutches and joined her team mates on the bench for the start of the third set. Although Ottawa initially rebounded well from the shock of seeing their leading scorer go down, as the third set wore on it became clear that Schwanke’s absence could not be overcome.

Kelsie English continued to swing well from the right side, but with the big Spartan blockers now focussing on her, Ottawa found scoring difficult. English led the Gee-Gees with 8.5 points in the match, earning player of the match honours.

The Gee-Gees hung with Trinity Western until the 6-5 mark, but then hit the wall. The Spartans went on a 14-2 run which was fuelled by Ottawa errors and kills from outside hitter Amy Ott. Ottawa used their final timeout at 20-8 and ended the Spartan’s spree by scoring four of the next five points, highlighted by an ace from Alix Durivage.

Cassie Gano of Trinity Western then stepped up to finish the match with a middle kill and a successful joust at the net. With the win, Trinity Western captured their second bronze medal in program history, equalling their best ever result.

The Spartans were led by their third-year outside hitter Amy Ott, who tallied 10.5 points on 8 kills. The Canada West conference finalists powered through the match with an overall attacking percentage of .407.

Source: Ottawa Sports Info

CIS Semifinal: Alberta Pandas (3) vs. Ottawa Gee-Gees (2)

The Gee-Gees will play for the CIS bronze medal on Saturday afternoon after coming tantalizingly close to pulling out a victory in their semifinal match against the Alberta Pandas. The match featured wild fluctuations in play and saw both teams win sets by large margins before Alberta conquered in the fifth set by a score of 15-12.

uOttawa will play the fourth seeded team at the tournament, the Trinity Western Spartans, in the bronze medal game at 1 p.m.

The garnet-clad Gee-Gees captured the first set 25-17, looking strong and ready to meet the challenges of playing on the national stage. Excellent serving and blocking carried Ottawa to a 20-12 lead and while Alberta made a mini-run to pull within four, a series of Alberta errors ended the first set.

Kelsie English, who led the Gee-Gees in points on the night, served up two of her three service aces in the first set. She finished with twelve kills and 25 digs as she was active all over the court throughout the match.

 “We proved that we deserve to be here. We are a top four team in the country, and I am so proud of my team mates,” said the third-year right side hitter. “We’re going for a medal tomorrow, we’re going to play as hard as we can to try to bring the bronze home.”

Ottawa jumped out to another lead in the second set, punctuated by a huge kill by English to make the score 7-4. A Kathryn Weihrer ace on a low serve and well-placed attacks into the corners of Panda territory pushed that lead to 14-9 before Alberta called for timeout and turned the match around with a 5-0 run.

The Gee-Gees recovered momentarily, trading points with the Pandas until Canada West first team all-star and national team member Jaki Ellis nailed a big line kill to give her side a 21-17 advantage. An ensuing rally featured four remarkable diving saves by the garnet and grey, but Ellis landed another kill and Alberta tied up the match with a 25-20 second set victory.

Alberta continued to befuddle the Gee-Gees in the third set, taking advantage of a slightly flat Ottawa crew to establish an 8-1 lead. Ottawa’s offence faltered, while Alberta cleaned up their own serving issues to maintain control of the set all the way through to a 25-11 score.

The fourth set proved to be the most dramatic of the night - the teams looked well-matched as they went at each other blow for blow. Myriam English kicked off the set with plenty of power behind her swings, leading to an 8-7 Ottawa lead. Alberta then took five straight points before a massive block by Karina Krueger Schwanke and Alix Durivage re-energized the Gees.

Aces by Weihrer and Schwanke helped Ottawa even the score at 15-15, and another tough serve from Durivage forced an Alberta free ball which Ottawa converted with Kelsie English coming up the chute into the middle for a clear kill to go ahead 19-16.

Weihrer came up big in the late stages of the fourth set, landing two kills and contributing to the tenacious Gee-Gees defence which put the squad ahead 23-20. However, Alberta came back with an ace and a kill of their own to tie things up at 23 apiece before Krueger Schwanke unloaded a huge left side kill and a Kelsie English tip sealed up the fourth set for Ottawa.

“I could not be more proud than I was during the fourth set – us coming back the way we did. We gave ourselves a shot,” said head coach Lionel Woods. “We just played full out volleyball, with all its mistakes and all its good stuff. That’s the game. It was just two really good teams going at it.”

In the fifth, Alberta claimed a 7-4 lead before Kelsie English scored with a block and a kill back-to-back and Alix Durivage served up an ace to give Ottawa the lead at 8-7. Krueger Schwanke and Myriam English won a rally which featured a sprawling save to keep Ottawa ahead at 9-8, but a big kill by Alberta’s Canada West second team all-star Krista Zubick proved to be the point which turned Alberta around. The Panda blockers came up big on the next two plays, and an ace by Alyssa Jones put them ahead for good.

The Gee-Gees still have a chance to become the first OUA team since the 1991 York Lions to capture a medal at the CIS championship. They will face the Canada West runners-up, Trinity Western, at 1 p.m. on Saturday. The game will be broadcast live on CIS-SIC.tv.

Source: Ottawa Sports Info