GUELPH, ON - The 2016-17 season has, to this point, been a bit of a roller coaster ride at times for the Gryphons men's volleyball team. Fortunately, the ups have far outweighed the downs. On Sunday afternoon on their home court, the team took yet another step up. The Gryphons snapped a three-game skid by winning in straight sets over the visiting Nipissing Lakers. Set scores were 25-21, 25-18 & 25-17. With the result, the Gryphs improve to 7-4. For Nipissing meanwhile, it marked just their third loss of the season. The Lakers now sit at 8-3, tied for 2nd in the OUA's East Division.
November was a memorable month for the Gryphons. The team went a perfect 6-0 and climbed into the national rankings. Unfortunately, the way the team
followed up that month of November was, in a word, forgettable. The Gryphons started 2017 with three straight losses on their new home court. On Sunday afternoon however, they put together arguably their best performance of the season and as a result, swept a talented Nipissing squad in straight sets.
"It was a massive win for us, not only in the standings but also mentally to really get the guys back on track to really get back into the winning," said Gryphons head coach
Cal Wigston after the match. The victory marked the Gryphons first 'W' on their new home court. "We definitely wanted to get that first one out of the way and get into the win column in our new home. The monkey is off our back now. That was a big win for our guys."
Offensively, the Gryphons were on point from the get-go on Sunday. As a team, the Gryphons posted a season-high hitting percentage of .440 (compared to Nipissing's hitting percentage of just .197). The impressive performance on the attack did not go unnoticed by U of G head coach Cal Wigson, "Hitting .440 is massive. I thought Zach (Newman) had a career night. Jared (Harris) had a massive bounce-back game. Overall, the guys were just fantastic today hitting."
Zach Newman racked up an impressive .688 kill percentage to go along with his team-high 13 points.
Jared Harris had 7 kills and a team-high 8 digs.
Josh Green finished with 12 points.
The Gryphons now have six games remaining on their regular season schedule, with next three coming on home court. Up next, a Friday night (Feb. 3) matchup with the Waterloo Warriors. The Gryphons will be looking to sweep the season series with the Warriors after winning at U of W back on November 10.
