GUELPH – The Guelph Gryphons women's volleyball team knows that navigating the competitive OUA schedule will be a challenge. The young Gryphons already got a taste of that task ahead  after their season opener at the Guelph Gryphons Events Centre Friday night. Guelph battled hard for a couple sets but eventually fell 3-0 to the Western Mustangs, with set scores of 25-20, 25-22 and 25-9.

The Gryphons have one of the youngest lineups in the conference and head coach Paul Funk thought it showed at times against the talented Mustangs, who by contrast, return many players from a team that finished second in the OUA West last season.

"We had spurts of good play especially in the first two sets," said Funk. "We also had a section in each of those games where we played poorly. We made a lot of unforced errors and it cost us a chance to win either of the first two sets. In the third set, we never gave ourselves a chance."

Second-year left side player Michaela Hellinga led the Gryphons with seven kills, while fourth-year middle blocker Jessica Gormley had six. Setter Alex Curran, another second-year player, who joined Hellinga on the OUA All-Rookie Team last season, had 21 assists. Veteran fifth-year libero Kayla McMullen topped all players with 12 digs.

Guelph understandably showed some nerves from the beginning, with Western scoring the first four points and five of the first seven. But the Gryphons calmed down after a timeout and took advantage of several service errors by the visitors to climb back into the set. Guelph answered a 6-1 Mustangs' run with a 4-0 stretch of its own but a key block snuffed out the rally and Western hung on 25-20.

The Mustangs relied on their aggressive front line again in the second set, jumping out to a 13-6 lead after a 7-0 run. The young Gryphons didn't back down and used a 5-0 run to get within one at 19-18. Rookie Lisa Wedel produced a block that tied the set at 20-20. But Guelph made a service error that, along with another Western another block (one of six in the set), would help the Mustangs to four straight points and a 25-22 win in the set.

Guelph faced a near-perfect set in the third, with the Mustangs registering eight kills and no errors. An 11-0 run put Western up 15-3 and they cruised to the victory from there.

Funk praised the performance Western's strong front line. The Mustangs finished with 17 blocks compared to six for Guelph, the big statistical difference on the night. The hosts also had 27 errors. The Gryphons will need to find kills all year and they did well in the opener, putting away 24 to Western's 33. 

The Gryphons showed flashes of what the team can do but Funk wants the lineup to make the positive plays a habit going forward, as well as showing the ability to stop opponents' runs.

"We can't afford to have a section in any set where we played poorly for eight or nine points in a row and be playing from behind all the time," said Funk. "Our consistency needs to be better."

The Gryphons get right back to action when they host Windsor on Saturday, Oct. 28. Game time is 6 pm.