GUELPH – They have been one of the best teams in the OUA since the calendar turned to 2018. The Guelph Gryphons women's volleyball team has been driving opponents crazy with disciplined, clean play in a great run of recent matches. Guelph got a taste of what those other teams have been experiencing Friday night at the GGAC. The Gryphons forced a fifth set but fell to the Toronto Varsity Blues 3-2 (25-18, 20-25, 12-25, 25-20, 8-15).
 
Guelph had cleaned up its play in the past six weeks but the team made too many mistakes against the powerful Varsity Blues.
 
"We're pretty disappointed to lose tonight because we made a lot of unforced errors," said head coach Paul Funk. "They did to us what we've been doing to teams this second half of the season."

 
Libby Donevan had team-highs of 15 kills and 8 blocks. Michaela Hellinga registered 13 kills and team-best 10 digs for the Gryphons (6-10), who did some good things to get to the fifth.
 
The errors hurt Guelph and the hosts made them in a variety of ways, either hitting the ball out of bounds, hitting into the net, or failing to produce blocks.

Down 2-1 in sets, the Gryphons were in danger of going out in the fourth. They quickly lost the first two points of but began to pull away, building leads of 10-4 and 18-11. Toronto made two straight attack errors to put Guelph ahead 22-14 and the set ended with yet another Varsity Blues mistake.
 
"Things reversed in the fourth," said Funk. "We were better and they were worse. We talked about finding a way to get it to fifth set."
 
Guelph was close for a while in the deciding set but two Alina Dormann kills and a Gryphons' attack error put Toronto in the driver's seat at 12-7. The match ended with three straight kills from Veronica Derylo.
 
Despite a good first set, the Gryphons began to have trouble with Dormann as the match wore on. The Toronto right side, and member of the Canadian national team's extended roster, led all players with 23 kills.
 
"We had a tough time with her," said Funk.
 
Guelph will look to regroup when Trent comes to the GGAC Saturday on Senior Night, where Donevan and Jessica Gormley will be honoured. The match begins at 6 pm.