OUA Women's Volleyball Roundup (Nov. 27)
November 24, 2017
Toronto 1 McMaster 3
With their young players taking centre stage against an old rival, the Marauders ground out a vital win at Burridge Gym Friday.
McMaster dealt the Toronto Varsity Blues their second loss of the season, improving to 6-1 with a four-set triumph (25-16, 25-19, 10-25, 25-20) to close the Fall schedule ahead of the holiday break.
Rookie setter Rebecca Maxwell (Cambridge, ON) earned her first start as a Marauder Friday, while fellow rookies Maddie Lethbridge (London, ON) and Brenna Peacock (Burlington, ON) opened the match on the left side and through the middle respectively.
Maxwell posted 27 assists in the win, splitting the majority of her distribution between veteran outsides Rachel Woock (Richmond Hill, ON) and Jill Eisenhauer (Toronto, ON), who had 10 and nine kills respectively.
While they were far from their best offensively in the win, the Marauders did crucial damage from the service line, with 12 aces versus four service errors. Maxwell was the most effective of all, knocking down five aces with just one error.
2017 OUA East Player of the Year Alina Dormann was typically effective on the outside, leading the match with 16 kills and 20.5 points for the Blues in a losing effort.
Source: marauders.ca
RMC 0 Windsor 3
The Windsor Lancers welcomed the RMC Paladins to the St. Denis Centre on Friday evening looking for a chance to get back on the right side of the scoreboard after a heartbreaking loss to the Western Mustangs last weekend. The Lancers were able to dominate the whole way, beating the Paladins in straight sets 25-23, 25-11 and 25-12.
Heading into Saturday's contest against the Queen's Gaels, the Lancers are 4-4 on the season and are in a tie for second place in the west division standings with the Western Mustangs.
GAME FLOW
The Lancers started things out right in the first set, playing inspired defense near the net. The Lancers defensive effort went a long way giving the Lancers a chance to comeback late in the first set when they found themselves down. The Blue and Gold took the first set in a close on, 25-23.
In the second set the Lancers were able to get into a groove and begin to dominate the Paladins. Jade Ziebarth began imposing her will offensively, recording five kills in the second set for the Lancers. The good work on defense kept up and the Lancers were able tin the second set handily, 25-11
In the final set, Ziebarth kept up her assault on the Paladins defenders, scoring 12 kills. The Lancers were also helped by the great effort from their Libero Carleigh Bailey 17 digs to lead all players. Up big in the final set and serving for game Jade Ziebarth ended with an ace to win the third set 25-12.
Source: golancers.ca
Ryerson 3 Guelph 1
GUELPH, Ont. - Though the team struggled as the game began, the Ryerson Rams would take three straight sets against the Guelph Gryphons to tally a 3-1 match victory, improving to a 7-0 undefeated record on the season.
The Rams got off to a slow start in the game, looking unsettled on the court and dropping the first set 25-22 to the Gryphons. Guelph played a strong defensive game, particularly in the first and second sets against Ryerson, preventing the Rams from sweeping the matchup.
Ryerson’s play was littered with error early on, as the team notched eight errors on the first set alone. The team would bounce back after their messy first set, tallying dominant victories through the remainder of the game.
Janelle Albert (Brampton, Ont.) and Lauren Veltman (Brampton, Ont.) would quickly work to solve the Guelph defence. Veltman led the team with 19 kills on the match, while Albert totaled 11 digs through four sets.
The second set saw a dominant 25-13 win, and both the third and fourth sets would finish with a 25-17 Rams victory.
Ryerson’s Julie Longman (Newmarket, Ont.) recorded the 1,000th dig of her career against Guelph, becoming the first Ram in program history to break the thousand mark. Longman recorded a total of 21 digs on the match.
Source: ryersonrams.ca
Queen’s 0 Western 3
LONDON, Ont. – The Western Mustangs opened with a dominant first set and cruised to win in straight sets (25-9, 25-18, 25-20) over the Queen's Gaels at Alumni Hall on Friday night.
The Gaels entered the weekend with a 5-1 record, trailing only the Ryerson Rams in the OUA's East Division, but it was all Mustangs on Friday night, as the purple and white snapped the Gaels' three-match win streak and improved their own record to 4-2, good for second spot in the West Division behind the McMaster Marauders. The match also marked the first clean three-set win for the Mustangs this season.
"I think that was a long time coming," Western's head coach, Melissa Bartlett said. "And that's the first thing I said to the girls afterwards. We've put in the work, and it hasn't really come out in our results the last couple of weekends. So, it always feels good to have a clean win, especially against a talented team like Queen's."
The Mustangs jumped out of the gate with a convincing 25-9 first-set win. Ahead 10-5, Western outscored Queen's 15-4 the remainder of the set. Those points included three kills apiece from Kelsey Veltman and Melissa Langegger.
"We came out really strong," said Langegger, who finished the night with seven kills and 8.5 points. "We worked a lot on defense in practice this week, and I think the effort and intensity we had all through the week really got us a good start. Overall, I think we really played well."
Veltman, fresh off being named a Lone Star Texas Grill Western Mustangs Athlete of the Week, led the Mustangs in scoring once again Friday night, tallying 16 points. The King's College student had a team-leading 13 kills. Aja Gyimah had 8.5 points (with eight kills), while Kat Tsiofas notched 7.5 points and had a strong blocking game (one solo and five assisted). Tsiofas also had a game-high three service aces.
The second set was more closely-contested until the midway point when first year player Chloe Biel stepped up and rattled off eight serves in a row.
"She came in and made a really critical serving run in set 2," said Bartlett. "I think without that serving run, we don't have the success that we had in that match."Ahead 18-10, the Mustangs cruised to a 25-18 second set win.
While the third set was the closest of the night, the Gaels didn't see another lead after being up 8-7. It was back and forth until Western opened up a five-point lead at 18-13, and that would remain the difference as the Mustangs earned their first clean win of the year with a 25-20 third-set win.
"Winning in three was a great feeling," said Langegger, a second-year Kinesiology student from Oakville, Ont. "We struggled the past couple of games, and I think what we did in practices this week really allowed us to come with the confidence into this game to pull out a three-set win."
"We had a really specific game plan, and we executed that really well, from start to finish," said Bartlett. "I saw them practice all week, the way that our seniors and captains were leading … I think our team was just so motivated, and it showed in developing a lead early on."
Source: westernmustangs.ca
November 25, 2017
Trent 1 Nipissing 3
It may not have been easy, or exactly how they drew it up, but the Nipissing Lakers women's volleyball team got the job done.
The Lakers made it three wins in a row and moved to 5-2 on the season, as they wrapped up the first semester of play with a 3-1 win over the Trent Excalibur Saturday afternoon at the RJS Athletic Centre.
It was a great start for the Lakers to begin the match, as they jumped out to a 6-0 lead over Trent.
As the game progressed, it looked like the Lakers would cruise to a first set victory, but suddenly Trent began to pick things up and actually led 15-11.
Nipissing still managed to come back and earn the technical timeout at 16-15.
From here the play was back and forth tying up at 24-24. Unfortunately Trent outlast Nipissined, taking the first set 26-24.
It was clear Nipissing stepped up their game as the second set started. Point after point, the Lakers built themselves a nice cushion.
This was clearly a game to show off their skill and they took the opportunity with some gorgeous hits.
Nipissing finished off the set 25-12 and evened things up quickly.
With the third game underway, it was clear we were going to get more of the game we were expecting from the beginning.
The Lakers' confidence elevated as Nipissing won the rallies and continued with kill after kill. The third set came to an end with a score of 25-15 making that two sets for Nipissing to Trent's one.
Coming into the fourth set it was clear Trent was trying to stay alive.
Nipissing started the set 5-0, but Trent quickly came back. They continued fighting point for point. Down to the wire the tension in the stands rose as the outcome was unpredictable.
Fortunately the Lakers, they weren't going to need another set as they finished the game off 25-23 and took the match 3-1.
Nipissing showed their balance again grabbing their third straight win, with Shayla Kessler leading the way with 16.5 points, Olivia Robinson and Cassie Dobson each had 12 and Erika Lapierre added 10 in the win.
Source: nulakers.ca
RMC 0 Western 3
LONDON, Ont. – Mustang Kelsey Veltman tallied 11 kills against the RMC Paladins for Western to win in three straight sets the second night in a row (25-20, 25-11, 25-13) at Alumni Hall on Saturday night.
"Any time you play RMC, like we know they're a little smaller, but they're really gritty. They're super aggressive; they're tough defenders and tough servers," said Mustangs head coach Melissa Bartlett. "I think most times you play a team like that, it's kind of feeling them out first or second set, so then we went in to set two and three with a lot more confidence, knowing how we could beat them."
The purple and white extend their winning streak to three games, good to maintain second place in the OUA West Division with a 5-2 record. The Paladins record is now at 1-8; they are second last in the OUA East division.
The Mustangs spread kills and digs across the board—all the players contributed to the night's win. Veltman was among some of the stand out performances with 11 kills, including five in the last set, and 14 points. Melissa Langegger was key to Western's last set success, recording eight kills and nine digs in the final set. Carly Kimmett tallied six kills during the three sets and received eight points total.
The Paladins' offence was more concentrated. RMC's MVP was Kara Stephan, who recorded 11 kills (seven in the last set) and nine digs. Her 12 points from the night is double Julia Krebs-Vandeloo's, who had the second highest points.
Bartlett also noted that setter Jessica Lam had a stand out performance distributing the ball on her first game of the season.
"It feels pretty good [to get three wins in a row]. It was really nice to have the whole team behind us, and all the girls were really supportive," said Lam. "The whole atmosphere of the gym was really positive and really energetic, so that really helped with the win and everything."
The Paladins recorded the first point of the night off a Western serve. RMC would take the early lead, tallying three points in a row, but Western recovered to get ahead.
The Paladins fought hard to match the purple and white and tied up the score at 8-8, and again at 16-16. Western struggled to maintain the lead, but they eventually found their footing and put a few more points in between the teams to end the first set 25-20.
"What I'd like to see continued would be getting everyone in and getting as much depth from our bench as we can," said Veltman. "We definitely had really good casing and everything, and I think something we can work on would be defense and constantly just being ready for anything because I think we were a little bit caught off guard in the first set, but we woke up later on, and I think that's something we can improve on throughout the whole year."
The Mustangs kicked off the second set with very different play; marking the first point and quickly going up 8-0. Kate Ferguson and Kristina Curcin proved to be a deadly blocking combo, and they counted for a couple of successful blocks against RMC. The Paladins made nine errors and only tallied five kills, allowing Western to dominate the set and finish with a score of 25-11.
"I think the keys would definitely be our attacking. It was pretty good," said Veltman. "We never really hesitated and we looked for open court all the time, and I think we did a great job finding all the open space that we could, and we just kind of let it rip and just played with full heart and just kind of let loose."
The third set would be the final of the night as the Mustangs continued to dominate on the court. The Mustangs logged six points before RMC could get one. The Paladins proved to be a tough team and fought hard to regain momentum. When the score hit 21-7, RMC appeared to have a mid-game comeback and recorded four points in a row. This short spree would not be enough to catch up to the Mustangs, however, and Western would win the final set 25-13.
Tonight was the last game of the semester for the Mustangs before the winter break. "It's a difficult break," said Bartlett. "It's definitely important that we stay in shape, but it's also important to have a little bit of physical and mental break. So, we do practice maybe two times a week for the next couple of weeks heading into exams, and then we come back early January and go hard for two weeks of a mini pre-season before our next game January 12th."
Source: westernmustangs.ca
Ryerson 3 Waterloo 2
WATERLOO, Ont. - An uncharacteristically slow start to the game was not enough to keep the undefeated Rams from a victory, as Ryerson would bounce back from a 2-0 deficit to claim a 3-2 match victory against the Waterloo Warriors.
A sloppy start by the Rams would leave the team struggling to claim a lead in the first and second sets. The team would earn themselves a total of 14 errors through the first two sets of the game, losing 28-26 and 27-25 in each set respectively.
Waterloo’s hitters saw little resistance from the Rams defense at the start of the game, as the team tally 32 kills through the first two sets of the match.
Mady Timpany (Woodstock, Ont.), the Rams’ sophomore setter and a starter in the game, was replaced by first-year Alicia Lam (Oakville, Ont.) midway through the second set in an attempt to mix up the lineup by head coach Dustin Reid. Lam would go on to tally herself a total of 39 assists through four sets against Waterloo.
Trailing 2-0, Ryerson would eventually regain confidence and start to minimize their errors. The Rams took both the third (25-12) and fourth sets (25-15), sending the game to a decisive fifth set.
The Rams played near perfect in the final set, totaling zero errors to close off the game with a 15-7 set win and a 3-2 match victory.
Janelle Albert (Brampton, Ont.) had an outstanding game, totalling a team-leading 19 kills in five sets. Albert, the first-year hitter, has quickly risen to the top of the OUA, currently sitting second in the league in kills per set with an average of 3.42.
With Saturday’s victory, the Rams improve to a perfect 8-0 record to close out first semester. The Rams have only lost six sets through eight games this season, garnering four 3-0 victories to three different teams during their hot streak.
Source: ryersonrams.ca
Queen’s 3 Windsor 2
WINDSOR, Ont. (November 25 2017) – The Queen's Gaels (6-2) picked up a road victory 3 sets to 2 over the Windsor Lancers (4-5). The scores of each set were 20-25, 25-17, 25-21, 24-26 and 15-10.
GAME FLOW
The Gaels took the first point in the first set with a kill by Olivia van Baaren (Ottawa, Ont.). Not long after, the Lancers took a 4-point lead, keeping the Gaels at bay. The Tricolour caught Windsor's lead at the 11th point but attack errors accumulated by the Gaels gave the Lancers the lead again. Windsor found the gaps in the Gaels defense and sent several unrecoverable kills towards Queen's. The Lancers took the first set on a kill with a score of 20-25 and made the match 0-1.
The second set showed the Gaels' strengths with fantastic efforts by Isabelle Birchall (Ottawa, Ont.), Shannon Neville (Cambridge, Ont.) and Natalie Crews (North Vancouver, B.C.). The Tricolour took an early lead and kept the Lancers trailing behind for most of the set. Kills by Isabelle Korchinski (Anmore, B.C.) and Olivia van Baaren lengthened the Gaels lead and strong defensive play by the Tricolour kept the Lancers from catching up. Queen's took the second set with a score of 25-17 and tied up the match at 1-1.
The third set was played evenly between the Gaels and the Lancers keeping the score close throughout most of the game. Sierra Hardy (Oakville, Ont.) and Julia Wiercigroch (Mississauga, Ont.) both scored serving aces this set. When the score was tied at 20-20 the Gaels took the lead with team captain Shannon Neville scoring 4 kills to win the set. The Tricolour won with a score of 25-21 and made the match score 2-1.
The fourth set started out very strong for the Gaels as they took a 10-point over the Lancers. Kills by Windsor and errors made by the Gaels allowed for the Lancers to catch the Queen's lead. Before the Lancers surpassed them, the Gaels made several more kills to make the score 23-19 in favour of the Tricolour. Windsor made two serving aces and three kills and along with several errors made by the Gaels, the Lancers took the set with a score of 26-24. Windsor tied up the match 2-2.
The fifth and final set of the match started with great intensity by both teams. With a tied score of 8-8, the Gaels started to take the lead, keeping the Lancers at bay. Three kills by Julia Wiercigroch lengthened the Tricolour lead an won the Gaels the game with a score of 15-10. The final score of the match was 3-2 in favour of Queen's.
Source: gogaelsgo.com
November 26, 2017
Toronto 3 Brock 1
Veteran outside hitters Anna Feore and Alina Dormann notched 17 and 20.5 points, respectively, in leading the University of Toronto Varsity Blues women's volleyball team to a 3-1 (25-19, 25-27, 25-17, 25-22) victory over the Brock Badgers on Sunday afternoon (Nov. 26) in St. Catharines, Ont.
With the win, the Blues head into the December exam break with a 5-2 record.
Dormann notched a game-high 16 kills and three aces, while adding 1.5 blocks and five digs on the day. Feore recorded 15 kills, one ace and one dig, while leading the Blues with 14 digs in the win.
Rookie Jenna Woock had another impressive outing, racking up 12.5 points on nine kills, two aces and 1.5 blocks. Rookie setter Angelica Hovanessian tallied 47 assists and nine digs, while libero Sophia Currier had 12 digs in the victory.
Renee Helmer led the Badgers with 16 points, while Julia Balatbat had a game-high 18 digs in the loss.
Source: varsityblues.ca
Trent 2 York 3
The York University Lions women's volleyball team took on Trent Excalibur in their final regular-season match of the fall term Sunday afternoon. Heading into this afternoon's match, the Lions were on a two-game winning streak and they extended it to three following their 3-2 win.
The Lions started the first set incredibly strong, racing ahead to an early lead while the Excalibur struggled to keep up. At the technical timeout, they were leading 16-10 and they maintained the intensity of their playing and had a huge win in the first set, finishing 25-16 over the Excalibur.
In the second, the Excalibur were able to regain their composure and stormed ahead to an early lead. The Lions had managed to close the gap a bit by the technical time out and only trailed 16-13. Efforts to make up for lost points in the second half of the set weren't enough to catch up and the Excalibur claimed this set 25-19 and tied the match 1-1.
The score remained close at the start of the third set. At the technical time out, the Lions had a decent lead of 16-10 over the Excalibur. The Lions maintained this lead and won the set 25-21 to put them back in the lead at 2-1.
The fourth set saw the Excalibur make a lot of big plays, and they often came out victorious in long rallies. At the technical time out, they were leading 16-11. To the dismay of the Lions, the Excalibur were able to hold onto this lead and won the set. The match score was tied 2-2, and they had to enter a fifth set.
The Lions got out to an early lead in the final set. Unfortunately, the Excalibur were able to capitalize on some Lions' errors and tied things up 11-11. In a rapid race to 15 points, the Lions managed to just pull ahead and win the match 3-2.
Leading the points for the Lions was Celeste Witzell with 13.5 points on 10 kills, two service aces and three assisted blocks. Not far behind was teammate Kayla Clennon, who earned 13 points for the Lions on 12 kills and two service aces in Sunday's match. Leading the team in digs was Sabah Kalim with 14. Mimi Demski earned six service aces in Sunday's match and had 38 assists.
On the Excalibur side, Camile Garzon led in points with 17.5, consisting of 14 kills, three services aces and one assisted block. Carley Gougeon led the Excalibur in digs with 18.
Source: yorkulions.ca
