TORONTO, Ont. – Their backs are officially against the wall. The Guelph Gryphons women's volleyball team remains in the hunt for a postseason berth but those hopes took a slight hit Saturday night in a 3-1 loss (25-21, 22-25, 27-29, and 13-25) to the OUA East-leading Ryerson Rams in Toronto.
 
Third-year Gryphon Michaela Hellinga tied match-highs with 15 kills and 5 aces, while rookie Noa Pijl added 13 kills and 4 blocks. Setter Alex Curran registered 39 assists and 9 digs for Guelph, which sits two games behind fourth-place McMaster in the battle for the final OUA West playoff spot.
 
Had Guelph pulled out a marathon third set, the story may have been different. The Gryphons trailed 23-18 but rode three straight kills and a Ryerson attack error to get within a point. It got to 27-27 and the Rams finished it off with the combination of a Guelph error and a service ace to go up 2-1.
 
The Gryphons continued to battle but Ryerson wrapped up the fourth set quickly to improve to 15-2 on the year.
 
For a while, it looked like an upset was brewing. Guelph got out of the gates quickly, rattling off six straight points to start the first set. The Rams worked their way back in and went up 11-10 but the visitors went on a brilliant 8-1 run to get control. Hellinga took over late with two kills and the Gryphons would close it out with a block for a 1-0 lead.
 
Ryerson rebounded from hitting just .038 in the first set with a 5-0 run to start the second, including four kills. Some sloppy play from the Rams allowed Guelph to get back into the set but the hosts went would tie the match 1-1 after producing a big block on set point.
 
 
Gryphon Take
"Neither team played their best volleyball tonight. I was happy with the way our middle blockers played. They made good choices. And we got a better match from Noa. Our serve receiving cost us a lot of points and despite fighting hard for the first three sets, we made too many errors in the fourth. We will have to take the positives from this match and try carry that over against Waterloo tomorrow."   – head coach Paul Funk
 
 
The Record
Guelph is 7-8
 
 
Next up
@ Waterloo, Sunday, Feb. 10, 4 pm