OUA Women's Volleyball Roundup (Oct. 30)
October 27, 2017
Ryerson 3 McMaster 2
After a huge comeback on the court, the Ryerson Rams took three back-to-back sets to tally a victory against the reigning OUA champions, winning their first game of the season by a final score of 3-2.
The No. 4 nationally ranked McMaster Marauders took the first two sets of the game by a score of 25-21 and 25-19, reminding the fans why they finished first in the OUA last season.
The Rams would not accept this loss in their season opener.
A strong third set (25-14) kept the Rams alive, but the team continued to push and dominated the remaining sets, winning by a total of 25-15 and 15-7.
The Rams’ victory tonight was their first against McMaster since November 2014.
Ryerson’s sophomore setter, Maddy Timpany (Woodstock, Ont.), had a great opening game for the Rams. Timpany added 33 assists and 8 digs, playing through five sets. First-year hitter Janelle Albert (Brampton, Ont.), arguably Ryerson’s best player in the game, lead the team with 19 kills, 20 points and a 0.333 kill rate through her five sets. Lauren Veltman (Brampton, Ont), an outside hitter, had an excellent defensive game tonight, leading the team with 19 digs.
The Rams will travel back to Toronto to take on the Lakehead Thunderwolves in their home-opener on Saturday, October 28th. The Thunderwolves opened their season Friday night against the Toronto Varsity Blues, losing 3-0 against one of the OUA’s strongest teams.
Source: Ryerson Rams
York 1 Nipissing 3
The York University Lions women's volleyball team paid a visit to North Bay, Ont., to take on the Nipissing Lakers Friday for their first OUA regular season match. It was not the ending the Lions were hoping for, as they suffered a 3-1 loss.
The Lakers led early on in the first match, scoring five points before Kayla Clennon added two points for the Lions. The Lions could not recover from the Lakers' early offensive attacks, and the first set finished 25-21 for the Lakers.
The second set started off much better for the Lions, who were able to quickly take over the scoring. However, this set still saw the Lions on the lower end of the scoreboard when the Lakers once again overtook them for a 25-21 victory.
The third set saw both teams remain within a couple of points of each other for its entirety. The Lions had their highest number of kills in this set out of all four sets. The Lions were able to secure a two-point at the end for their first and only win at 26-24.
Both teams fought fiercely throughout the fourth set, with each side constantly switching who was in the lead. Unlike the previous set, the Lions were unable to pull ahead at the end, and the score ended in favour of the Lakers 26-24.
Clennon and Sarah Williams earned the most points in this match, with 12.5 and 12 respectively. Clennon also led the team in kills, with 12 over the course of the four sets. She was followed closely by Williams and Celeste Witzell who each had 10. Tara Leithead led the team in service aces, scoring three throughout the match.
Source: York Lions
Waterloo 3 Windsor 0
Waterloo took the opening set 25-18 before two very tight second and third sets that went the way of the Warriors, 25-23 on both occasions.
The Warriors put away 39 kills in the match compared to 29 for Windsor.
Leading the attack for the black and gold was Claire Mackenzie (Vancouver/)who finished with a game high 13 kills while Kayla Wierts (Drayton/) had 11. At the net Kelsey Caza (Waterloo/) and Jenna Gravina (Burlington/) each had two blocks while Gravina impressed in her Warriors debut with three service aces. Setting up the Warriors was second year Claire Gagne(Cambridge/) who finished with a very impressive 32 assists.
Defensively Mackenzie and Sarah Remedios (Ajax/) were rock solid with 16 and 11 digs respectively.
For the visitors it was Paige Phills who did most of the damage with a team high 11 kills.
Source: Waterloo Warriors
Western 3 Guelph 0
Melissa Langegger and Kelsey Veltman combined for 25 points to help the Western Mustangs start off their season with an impressive three set (25-20, 25-22, 25-9) win over the Guelph Gryphons on Friday night at the Gryphon Athletic Centre.
Both Langegger and Veltman scored 12.5 points in the victory, with Langegger tallying nine kills, two solo blocks, and two assisted blocks, while Veltman registered six kills, four solo blocks, and three block assists. Both Danielle Grasman and Taylor Beedie made their presence felt in the win, with 11.5 and 10 points, respectively.
Michaela Hellinga led the Gryphons in scoring with nine points off seven kills and two block, with Jessica Gormley next on the score sheet with seven points.
Langegger began putting points on the board right out of the gate on Friday, scoring Western's first three points of the match on three consecutive kills to help the Mustangs build an early 7-2 lead.
The Gryphons then began to claw their way back, pulling to within one with the Mustangs up 9-8. It was a point-for-point affair after that, with serving errors preventing either side from gaining much momentum as Western took a 16-14 lead at the technical timeout. Western continued to hold the edge right through the end of the frame with the Mustangs taking the first set 25-20.
The second set would prove to be the closet of the night, and fittingly enough it was one that started out with both sides trading points up until the scoreboard was deadlocked at 6-6.
Western then began to pull away, utilizing strong blocking to go on a 7-0 run and eventually taking a 16-9 lead into the technical timeout.
Despite trailing by seven the Gryphons battled back after the break, picking up points off Western errors and kills from Hellinga and Gormley to tie the game at 20-20. Unfortunately for the home side that was as close as things would get, as the Mustangs would close out the frame with a kill from Grasman to take a 25-20 set win.
The Mustangs took the momentum from their first two sets and used it to start the third on a dominant 10-3 run to force the Gryphons into an early timeout. The timeout couldn't slow down the purple and white, with Western taking a 16-5 lead at the technical on their way to a 25-9 set win. The duo of Veltman and Langegger were nearly unstoppable in the third, combining for 10.5 points, with Veltman registering 6.5, while Langegger recorded four points in the frame.
Source: Western Mustangs
Lakehead 0 Toronto 3
The University of Toronto Varsity Blue women's volleyball team opened their 2017-18 campaign in style, defeating the visiting Lakehead Thunderwolves in straight sets (25-20, 25-15, 25-16) on Friday night (Oct. 27) at Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport.
The Varsity Blues led from the opening serve with an offensive performance that saw three Blues hit double-digit points in the victory.
Two-time OUA East player of the year Alina Dormann led all players on the night with 14 points from 13 kills and one ace.
Her counterpart on the left side, Anna Feore, registered 12 points with nine kills, two aces,and one solo block.
Second-year outside hitter Emma Armstrong rounded out the trio of powerful hitting performances for U of T with 11 points off of nine kills, one ace and one solo block.
The Thunderwolves were paced offensively by Leah Mousseau, who finished the night with 13 points from 11 kills and two service aces.
Blues first-year setter Angelica Hovanessian led all players with 32 assists, while Dormann and Feore tied with a game-high 10 digs each defensively.
Source: Toronto Varsity Blues
RMC 3 Trent 0
October 28, 2017
Windsor 3 Guelph 2
The Gryphons women's volleyball team suffered a five-set loss to the Windsor Lancers Saturday night at the Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre. Set scores were 26-28, 25-14, 20-25, 25-18 & 13-15. With the result, the Gryphons fall to 0-2 on the season while Windsor improves to 1-1.
Gryphons second year left-side Michaela Hellinga had a huge night, racking up 28 kills and 32 points. Second year setter Alex Curran finished the night with 49 assists while senior Kayla McMullen had a team-high 18 digs. Fourth year middle blocker Jessica Gormley added 17 points to go along with 4 blocks.
"We saw some good things out there tonight but were wildly inconsistent," said Gryphons head coach Paul Funk. "We had an opportunity tonight to play under some pressure in a tight fifth set. The more experience we can gain play in environments like that, the better we'll be going forward."
Source: Guelph Gryphons
Western 3 Waterloo 1
A 21.5 point performance from Kelsey Veltman powered the Western Mustangs to a four set (19-25, 25-17, 25-23, 25-16) win over the Waterloo Warriors on Saturday night at the PAC Gym.
Veltman was a dominant force for the Mustangs, with her 21.5 points coming off 15 kills, three service aces, three solo blocks, and one assisted block. Melissa Langegger and Aja Gyimah were also key contributors in the win, scoring 17.5 and 14.5 points, respectively.
Waterloo's Kayla Wierts was the top scorer for the Warriors recording 10 kills and two aces to go along with four assisted blocks for 14 points on the night. Claire Mackenzie came in just behind Wierts with nine kills, one ace, and two block assists to put 11 points on the score sheet.
After dropping the first set 19-25, the Mustangs rebounded in the second frame, thanks in part to a strong serving run from Rachael Grove that put Western up 12-4. The Warriors began to put points on the board but the early lead was too much to overcome with Western taking a 25-17 set win.
The third set proved to be the closest of the night, as after Western went up 20-11 the Warriors began to battle back and pulled to within one point near the end of the frame before Kat Tsiofas scored the final point to put the Mustangs up 2-1.
Western continued to roll in the fourth set, finding holes in the Warriors defence to claim their biggest set win of the night, taking the fourth 25-16 and the match 3-1.
Source: Western Mustangs
Lakehead 0 Ryerson 3
The Rams handily won the first set 25-15, but the Thunderwolves continued to fight back in the second set. In the end, Ryerson swept Lakehead, taking both the second and third sets by 25-21 and 25-12 scores, respectively.
Head coach Dustin Reid said after a late night and a tough game yesterday, he was content with the team’s structure on the court today.
“Lakehead is a team that pushes the tempo of the game really fast,” said the coach after the game. “Their sets are really fast to their players, and so you need to be prepared. You’re always going to be late getting to where you want to go, and you need to prepare for the shots that don’t come that hard. We did a good job of that.”
Theanna Vernon (Scarborough, Ont.) lead the team tonight with 10 kills, and had three strong sets for the Rams to help push them by the Thunderwolves.
Vernon said that the momentum helped pushed them to win again at home.
Source: Ryerson Rams
October 29, 2017
Queen’s 3 RMC 0
The Queen's Gaels (1-0) took the win against the RMC Paladins (0-1) in three straight sets at the RMC home opener. The scores of each set were 25-22, 25-15 and 25-22 respectively.
GAME FLOW
In the first set of the game the Gaels had a tight matchup against the RMC Paladins. Queen's managed seven kills on the Paladins and maintained their lead throughout the set with several great digs on the defensive end. The Tricolour kept their lead as the Paladins continued to make serving errors, allowing the Gaels to take the set 25-22.
In the second set the Gaels kept their momentum, making several amazing plays and keeping the intensity up over the Paladins. Queen's had 16 kills in the set, leading them to victory with a score of 25-15. The Gaels played fantastic defence, keeping their lead and snagging the second of their three sets.
The third set continued the Gaels intensity, but RMC returned to fight for the set. Queen's kept the momentum up, sending 11 kills at the Paladins. The Tricolour managed only 7 errors this set and took the third frame 25-22 and the match 3-0.
Source: Queen's Gaels
Lakehead 3 Trent 1
The Lakehead women’s volleyball team (1-2) beat Trent University (0-2) this afternoon 3-1 (25-20, 25-19, 14-25, 25-17) at the Trent Athletics Centre.
After two tough games against Ryerson and Toronto, the Thunderwolves came out eager for a win. Lakehead took the first two sets 25-20 and 25-19. Trent fought back in the third with a convincing 25-14 win but the Thunderwolves did not let down and took the fourth and final set 25-17.
“Our girls played well today. We came out with a better focus and concentration level. Still to many runs especially when we were up and we gave away too many free points. However after a weak 3rd set, our team refocused well.” – Coach Chris Green
Rheanna had a great day today with 14 kills, 2 blocks and 5 aces. Freshman Meghan Routier was strong with 10 kills, 2 blocks and Leah Mousseau had 13 kills and 3 aces.
Source: Lakehead Thunderwolves
