The Guelph Gryphons men's volleyball team opened their season tonight (Oct 26) against the Waterloo Warriors at the W.F. Mitchell Centre.  It was an incredibly close match that came down to the fifth set, but the Warriors ultimately came out on top with a 15-13 win over the Gryphons in the final frame.  Set scores were 25-19, 19-25, 23-25, 26-24 and 13-15.
 
The loss drops the Gryphons to 0-1 while boosts the Warriors to 1-0 to start the season.
 
The first set was a deceiving indication as to how the game was going to unfold as the Gryphons were able to capitalize on several unfortunate Warrior mishaps to take the set 25-19.  Phillip Wessel (Cambridge, Ont) and Marc Wilson (Stratford, Ont) were vicious at the net to shut down the Warrior opposition and allowing Winston Rosser (Whitby, Ont) the opportunity to kill the set point to establish an early Gryphon lead.
 
However, the Warriors were quick to jump on their mistakes in the previous set as they took an early 6-2 lead that they were able to maintain throughout to pull off a 25-19 win as Zachary Doherty (Goderich, Ont) sealed the second set.
 
Marc Wilson was able to establish an early Gryphon lead in the third set with a huge block to thwart the Warrior momentum.  However, the Warriors remained unfazed as control of the set swapped sporadically between both teams.  In the dying stages of the third, the Gryphons found themselves trailing by six.  Winston Rosser and Andrew Whittaker (Sharon, Ont) were able to rally the Gryphons but were unfortunately unable to close the gap as they dropped the set 25-23.
 
No team was able to pull ahead by more than two in the fourth until Whittaker was able to steal the Warrior momentum and regain control as the Gryphons jumped ahead 23-21.  With a last ditch effort by the Warriors, the game was forced to 26, but following a line violation, Winston Rosser was able to steal the 26^th point to send the match to 5.
 
The fifth set saw some of the best rallies of the night, but neither team was able to establish a commanding lead until Ryan Killeen (Oakville, Ont) and Phillip Wessel (Cambridge, Ont) connected with a devastating block to push the Gryphons ahead by one.  Marc Wilson nailed two explosive spikes back-to-back to extend the lead but despite the strong change in momentum, the Warriors were able to silence the home crowd to steal a 15-13 win in the fifth to jump ahead 1-0 in OUA regulation.
 
The Gryphons were led by Winston Rosser with 14 kills while Andrew Whitaker and March Wilson contributed 12 kills.
 
The Gryphons look to reboot their season as they travel to Windsor to take on the Lancers next Friday (Nov 2).  The game is set to take place at 8:00 pm.