Despite close sets, Gryphons unable to rally for victory
The Guelph Gryphons women’s volleyball team dropped three straight sets, 23-25, 23-25 and 25-22, to the 7-1 Ottawa Gee-Gees on Nov. 16 to bring their record back to .500 at 4-4 for the season.
Madison DeDecker (8 kills) and Alicia Combe-DIngwall (5 kills, 3 blocks) provided Guelph’s offensive prowess, while Kristen Almhjell led the defense with 14 digs. Miriam English led the Gee-Gees with 12 kills, while Kelsie English provided 14 digs.
The first set was evenly matched in its early stages, and going into the technical timeout, the Gryphons managed to fight back within one point of the Gee-Gees. Guelph tied it up at 21 late in the set but that’s as close as the women would get to defeating Ottawa, as they ended up losing 23-25.
Guelph trailed the entire second set and their closest margin of points was 16-13 heading into the technical timeout.
The third set proved to be the toughest for the Gryphons, who went down 9-1 early on. The women did manage to make it a respectable ending, though. The set ended with Ottawa winning 25-22.
The three set defeat by Ottawa was far from unexpected – the Gee-Gees currently sit second to the 8-0 York Lions in the OUA East, which sports notoriously stronger teams than the OUA West where Guelph plays.
Guelph, sitting tied for second with McMaster in the OUA West with a 4-4 record, are currently sitting in a much coveted playoff spot, a full two games clear of the next closest team, Waterloo, who sport a 3-6 record.
Guelph has two games left on the schedule prior to the winter break. First, the women will travel to Western to take on the lowly 0-6 Mustangs on Nov. 23, and then they will end their Fall 2013 semester travelling to Windsor on Nov. 24 to battle with the West division’s number one seed, the Lancers.
The women are certainly poised to beat Western, a team that has only amassed five total set wins in the six games they’ve played. However, a win versus division leaders Windsor could bring an interesting dynamic for first place after the month and a half long break, prior to reopening play on Jan. 7 versus the Brock Badgers.