TORONTO, ON – Saturday night at the University of Toronto, the Guelph Gryphons women's volleyball team came agonizingly close to pulling off something that no other OUA school has the past
two seasons: defeat the Toronto Varsity Blues. In the end, the Gryphons bid for an upset against the No. 1-nationally ranked, undefeated Varsity Blues would fall just short. The Varsity Blues picked up a 3-sets-to-2 victory over the Gryphons on Saturday at the Goldring Centre on the campus of U of T. It marks the second consecutive season that the Varsity Blues have finished a perfect 19-0 during the regular season. Set scores were 27-25, 16-25, 7-25, 25-18 & 8-15. The match also signaled the regular season finale for both teams. The Gryphons finish the season with a 12-7 record and will head into the OUA playoffs next weekend as the No. 3-seed in the OUA West Division. The Varsity Blues (19-0) finished first in the OUA East.
If the Varsity Blues were going complete another perfect season, one thing was clear early on: the Gryphons were not going to make it easy. Guelph led for the majority of the opening set, only to see U of T storm back and earn a set point at 24-23. After surviving that set point, the Gryphons would finish strong, taking the opening set 27-25. After the promising start, the Varsity Blues would start to show why they are the top-ranked team in Canada. A combination of strong serving by U of T and a break down in Guelph's passing allowed the Varsity Blues to take 2nd set 25-16 and the 3rd set 25-7.
In the 4th set, the Gryphons were able to hang with the Blues early on, but still found themselves trailing 16-12 at the technical timeout. A remarkable 13-2 run from that point would see the Gryphons force a 5th and final set. Helping lead the charge during the run was third year middle blocker
Jessica Gormley (Georgetown, ON) who reeled off a long string of serves to put the Varsity Blues on the ropes. Gormley finished the night as the Gryphons leading scorer with 15 points.
The 5th set saw Toronto jump out to a 4-0 lead, only to see Guelph answer back to tie it at 4-4. U of T held a slim 8-7 lead midway through the set, but the No. 1-ranked Varsity Blues would take control after the switch over, ending the match on a 7-1 run to cap their undefeated season.
After the match, Gryphons head coach
Paul Funk praised his team's mental toughness, "It was impressive to see the way the team recovered following that 3rd set. We kept our emotions in check and were able to play at an even keel. I thought that was what really allowed us to get back into it."
Overall, it was a balanced attack for the Gryphons. Jessica Gormley (15 points) was one of four players to score in double figures with
Victoria Golebiowski and
Libby Donevan each scoring 11 points, followed by
Michaela Hellinga with 10 points.
The Gryphons will once again be back in Toronto next weekend for their OUA Quarter-final matchup with the Ryerson Rams on Saturday, March 4th.
