Friday night at the W.F. Mitchell Athletic Centre witnessed the Gryphons men’s volleyball team hosting the York Lions. The Guelph team came into the game 2-6 on the season with a great 3-0 set win over the Royal Military College. The Gryphons were looking for redemption against the York Lions after having been served a tough defeat by the York team on Nov. 15, 2015.
It was a tough match at the start of the first set as both teams hammered back and forth. Guelph quickly picked up the lead in the first half with a 5-1 lead, and carried that lead into a strong first set. The Lions put up a fight to start the game, and kept a close score of 8-6 in favour of the Gryphons after a kill from Guelph’s Kendrick Kerr. After that, the Gryphons went on a 4-0 scoring run to secure a 12-6 dominance in the set. The Lions answered back, but fell short throughout the set as the Gryphons rolled into a 25-16 win that ended on an attack error by York’s Tyler Covach. The Gryphons showed a tenacious attitude to push through the second set, knowing from their last loss to York not to give up the second set. The Lions weren’t ready to lay down just yet, and the intensity grew as neither team saw scoring runs throughout the second set, making for non-stop back and forth play to the very end. The Lions’ Covach had a service ace to put the Lions up 25-24, but with a quick service error the Gryphons regained service with a tied game, and quickly went up by one with a kill from Arthur Zwarc, assisted by Logan Mend.
The Gryphons struggled to end the second set, however, with a few service errors late in the set but Guelph’s Kyle Richards helped put the set to bed with a strong kill and an assist from Josh Green. The Gryphons’ last point ended the second set 32-30 on the Lions, and the energy following the Gryphons’ success was electric. “That’s our set!” yelled one of the Gryphons as the team left the court.
The Gryphons went on to win the third set 25-15, with four kills from Green and two kills and six assists from Richards.
Second-year Zachary Newman had a strong eight kills for the night, along with his three serving aces and and three blocks on defence, to finish the evening with 13.5 points. Arthur Zwarc, who finished the Nov. 15, 2015 game with a game high of 25.5 points, had only 10.5 for this match.
The Gryphons have since improved their win streak to three games with their recent 3-1 win over the Nipissing Lakers at home on Nov. 28, 2015.