Box Score
Guelph, ON - The University of Guelph women's volleyball team dropped the OUA Bronze Medal match to Western 3-1 Saturday night at the W.F. Mitchell Athletics Center. Set scores were 25-15, 29-31, 23-25 & 20-25.

The Gryphons got off to a great start as they were able to jump out to an 8-4 early lead in the opening set. Western looked like they were mounting a comeback, but the Gryphons would not allow it. Shannon Morelli (London, ON) would make her presence known, hitting multiple kills in the early portion of the set. Madison Dedecker (Dorchester, ON) would also impact the set when she came on shortly before the technical time-out. The Gryphons would continue their pace, on to a 25-15 set victory. Morelli lead the Gryphons with five kills, while OUA West Liberio of the Year Kristen Almhjell (Richmond, BC) had 10 digs.
 
Set number two started very comparable to the first set, with Guelph getting off to a quick lead, then Western battling back. The rallies in this set went on for much longer, as the intensity of the game picked up. It was a tight battle the whole way through as the teams were tied at 20, with neither one taking more than a two-point lead. With the score 22-20 Western, Coach Paul Funk would call a time-out to settle his Gryphons down and prepare them to make a comeback. The set would need extra points to finish, with long rallies increasing up the intensity even more. With the game tied at 29, the Mustangs were able to win a long rally, and then they would add the second point to win the marathon set 31-29, tying the match 1-1.
 
After coming out on top of such a physically and emotionally draining second set, the Mustangs were able to carry that momentum into the early part of the third set, jumping out to a four point lead. The Gryphons would fight back however, and were the first to reach 16 in the set as they held a slim 16-15 lead.  After the technical time-out, the Mustangs regained their momentum pushing the lead to 22-18. Western would come out with the 25-23 set win, taking a 2-sets-to-1 lead in the match.
 
The Gryphons struggled early on in the fourth set, but once again showed great fight to get back into the game and found themselve trailing by just one point at 14-15.  That was as close as the Gryphons would get however, as the Mustangs were led by some strong play from Serena Smith (Caledonia, ON) and OUA West Player and Rookie of the Year Kelsey Veltman (Brampton, ON).   Western would win the set 25-20, and the match 3-1. The Mustangs would be take home the third place medal in the OUA Women's Volleyball.  

After the match, Gryphons coach Paul Funk said, "We played hard tonight and we played well, just not well enough to win. Credit to Western for playing their best volleyball of the season this weekend." Becky Breau led the Guelph offense with 15 points (13 kills, 1 ace, 1 block) followed by Shannon Morelli with 13 (11 kills, 1 ace, 1 block) while Kristen Almhjell had 26 digs and was solid on serve receive all night. The Gryphons finish the season with a 12-10 overall record (11-8 regular season, 1-2 playoffs).