CIS women's volleyball Saturday roundup: Dinos knock off No. 1 Thunderbirds in come-from-behind fashion

With the win, the Gaels improved to 8-1 on the season and match their season-high win streak of four games. As for the Warriors, they fall to 3-7 on the year.

Three different Gaels recorded a team-high six kills in the match, including Lorna Button of Newcastle, Ont., Katie Neville of Cambridge, Ont., and Katie Matthews of Aurora, Ont.

Defensively, Matthews also had another excellent effort for Queen's as she picked up a match high four solo blocks, giving her a CIS-leading 29 on the season. Natalie Gray of Oshawa, Ont., was also a strong defender for Queen's as she picked up a match-high 13 digs.

Danielle Kamps of Vineland Station, Ont., was the top player on the afternoon for Waterloo as she recorded a match-high seven kills.

Queen's will be back in action tomorrow afternoon when they host the Laurier Golden Hawks at the ARC. Game time is set for 12:00 pm.

Source: Queen's Sports Info

The ladies took advantage of RMC who has also had struggles winning this season. With the victory the Hawks push their record to 2-8 on the year. All three sets of this game favoured the Hawks as they won by scores of 25-21, 25-17, and 25-16. They played excellently offensively as they outscored RMC by 15 kills and had four more service aces.

For the Hawks today Megan Gilmore (Cambridge, Ont.) had a total of nine kills and an exceptional attack percentage of .640. Right next to her was teammate Brittney Hopley (Thornhill, Ont.) who also had nine kills offensively and 4.5 total blocked shots out of Laurier's eight total blocked shots.

RMC saw good action from Norah Collins who had seven total kills and five digs on the day. Chelsey Litjens also had six kills, three digs and one blocked shot on the day.

The Hawks stay on the road in Kingston until tomorrow night as they will face off against an 8-1 Queen's team. The game is scheduled to start at 12 p.m.

Source: Laurier Sports Info

With the win, the Blues improve to 5-8 and sit in fourth place, while the Rams drop to 1-11 in the OUA East division.

Alexandra Hudson recorded a team-high 11 kills and 15 digs, while Sarah Chapin had nine kills and eight digs. Lauren Ebenhardt and Katrina Rossall each added 15 digs in the win.

The first set was the closest of the match. The Blues managed to keep the Rams at bay and gain the lead after the first technical, but not for long as Jana Champagne of St.Paul, Alta responded for the Rams, tying the game at 12. From then on it was a tug of war, each team gaining only a short advantage before the other responded. Calgary native Shannon Rossall fought hard for the Blues continually keep the Blues in it and dragging out the play. Ultimately, however, Jessica Broad of Courtice, Ont. took the set 25-22 with a two final kills for the Rams.

The Blues garnered the first three points of the second, but Haley Wolfenden of Ottawa quickly answered back with a sharp kill and an ace. Katrina Rossall pulled through for Toronto with a three-point streak and brought lead up to four points, 8-4 coming into the first technical. From there, the Blues continued to advance, with kills coming from rookie Arissa Fogolin of Caledon, Ont., veteran Karlee
Diesing of Coquitlam, B.C. and Shannon Rossall. By the second technical the Blues were up 17-8 and they continued on with the same momentum for a 25-12 win.

Shannon Rossall started off the third with a kill followed by an ace from Diesing. Eager to stay in the game, the Rams pulled together and managed to keep pace with the Blues, nearly tying the score at 9-8. The Blues finally regained their stride with kills from the Rossalls, Deising, and Hudson for a game-high lead of 22-11. The Rams had a brief comeback near the end, but it wasn't enough as the Blues took the set 25-19.

The Blues faltered a little coming into the fourth, allowing the Rams to take an early lead, but the home team quickly regrouped and evened the score again. The play remained tight, with the Rams unwilling to let the Blues get too far ahead. Hudson and Chapin of Georgetown, Ont. fought hard throughout, repeatedly evening the score. The Blues won the set point with a final kill from Shannon Rossall, taking the match 25-23.

Ryerson was led by Jessica Broad's 17-kill and 10-dig performance. Champagne added six kills and 19 digs in the loss.

The Varsity Blues return to action tomorrow afternoon as they travel north to take on the York Lions. Opening serve is scheduled for 1 p.m.

Source: Toronto Sports Info

"Some would say 'character win' but I wouldn't," said Gee-Gees head coach Lionel Woods. "I would say I'm glad we decided to push back in game five, but we just can't wait until then and hope that it's there."

In the first set, the Gee-Gees and the Badgers battled it out nearly point for point, until second-year LS/RS Melissa Morelli, London, Ont., came through with a powerful kill to tie the game at 19 apiece. Morelli went on to serve four in a row to help lift the Gee-Gees to a 23-19 lead, while an aggressive kill by second-year LS/RS Laura Carmanico, Stittsville, Ont., followed by a solid serve by third-year middle Kathryn Weihrer, Ottawa, Ont., would help the team secure the first set with a score of 25-20.

The Gee-Gees went on to take the second set 25-19, but would shortly find themselves tied with the Badgers at two games apiece, to enter a fifth and deciding set. The Badgers proved to be a very persistent team and took much of the control of the game in the third and fourth sets.

"Again, we're a young team and I think we let our foot off the gas without intentionally doing so," explained Woods. "We have to keep working hard at finishing what we started and staying on our rhythm. Full marks to Brock. After being on a bus for nine hours and finding enough to keep fighting in game three... And then they just took the momentum. They played really well, they pushed us around and I thought it took us two sets to fight back."

In the fifth set, the energy quickly picked up for the Gee-Gees as they scored five straight points to bring their lead from one point (8-7) to six points (13-8). Carmanico once again came through for her team with a beautiful kill to end the set, 15-10, and claim the win.

"It felt amazing!" said Carmanico when asked about scoring the game winning point. "In my first year I played at Brock, so it felt really good to get back at them and finish it off really well like that."

Weihrer was named Player of the Game for the Gee-Gees, while second-year left-side Tori Stirling, Whitby, Ont., received the honour for Brock.

Woods noted that both Weihrer and Carmanico have been an integral part of the team's success so far this season: "They both have very specific roles and they are a lot of the heart and soul of the hard work that we do every day. They have both taken their games to another level this year. They are a big reason why we do well. They're a big part of our six that are out there."

The Gee-Gees will host another pair of home games next weekend. They will face their toughest competition yet on Saturday, January 22, when they face the OUA East's No. 1 York Lions (10-1 OUA). They will follow this up by a match against the Ryerson Rams (1-10 OUA) on Sunday, January 23. Both games are set to start at 2:00 p.m. at Montpetit Hall.

Source: Ottawa Sports Info

The Gryphons were not at their top level but the scrappy Lancers forced Guelph to stay focused throughout the match. The Gryphons jumped out to an early 8-5 lead in set 1 and expanded the margin in the middle section to win 25-20. The second set was more of the same as Guelph gradually built a lead throughout against the Lancers, winning 25-15. To start the third set, the Gryphons lost focus and Windsor made them pay taking a quick 5-2 lead. It wasn't until 14-13 that Guelph finally took the lead and were able to expand it slightly to win the set 25-19.

"The tough part of playing the night after an emotional 5 set loss is coming back the next day and playing with energy and focus. I thought for the most part our team did a good job of accomplishing that tonight," said coach Paul Funk.

The Guelph offense was led by Erinn Bickle with 14 points (11 kills, 1 ace, 2 blocks) followed by Claire Sandor (12 kills, 1 ace) and Kylen Van Osch (10 kills, 3 aces) with 13 apiece.

The Gryphons next action is next Saturday at 7:30pm on the road when they play another pivotal West Division game against the Brock Badgers.

Source: Guelph Sports Info

McRobert also had nine digs, two service aces, two solo blocks and two block assists to tally her 22 points.

Sarah Kiernan also had a productive night for the Marauders contributing 18 points on 12 kills, three aces, two solo blocks and two assisted blocks.

Jenny Pierce and Jenna Thomson each scored 15 points for the Mustangs in the loss.

With the win the Marauders improved to 11-1 in conference play and continue to hold top spot in the OUA West division. Western dropped to 8-3 on the season.

Source: McMaster Sports Info

The win advances the Dinos to 6-4 on the season, while UBC suffered just its third loss on the year and falls to 9-3.

"We could have a million excuses, whether it's the multitude of injuries, or we're playing UBC, or we're tired...but at the end none of them were acceptable and we weren't going to make any," said a jubilant Dinos head coach Jesse Knight following the win. "Tonight we went for it offensively after the first set, and we made some adjustments defensively to get a hand on balls and just kept fighting."

Calgary played without CIS all-rookie teamer Maura Hayes, highly-touted freshman middle Courtney Dawson, and former national teamer Laura Wilson - who suffered a severe left knee injury in Friday's match.

The T-Birds took control early in the opening set and led 8-5 after a Rayel Quiring kill took the match to its first technical timeout. UBC continued to carry the play and used a series of runs to easily take the first frame.

Calgary responded with a more spirited effort in the second and led 14-10 before UBC slowly chipped away at the deficit. The 'Birds eventually tied the set at 21-21, however, a 4-1 run Dino run that included three kills gave the hosts life.

The third set was back and forth early with UBC leading 8-7 at the first technical timeout. The 'Birds promptly took control of the frame thanks to a 6-0 run and Calgary never closed the deficit to less than three the rest of the set.

With UBC leading 12-10 in the fifth and deciding set, the Dinos went on a 4-1 run that was capped off by a pair of Sarah Moncks kills taking the Dinos to match point point. Jessica von Schilling earned a kill to tie the match but a UBC error followed by a kill from Lindsey Doland sealed the upset.

The T-Birds had a chance to end the match in the fourth set as well. Calgary led for most of the frame before a 5-0 run from the 'Birds put the visitors in front 22-20. UBC couldn't close out the set, however, as the Dinos responded with a 5-1 run to setup the do or die fifth.

Kyla Richey and Shanice Marcelle paced the T-Bird attack with 15 and 11 kills apiece. Doland and Lindsay Russell led the Dinos with 13 kills apiece with Moncks chipping in 10.

"I'm ecstatic," Knight summed up. "This is big for our program because we're young and because of some of the turmoil we've gone through, but it proves that we can still do it. UBC is the best team in the country, and we have a shot at them. That's all you want."

The road ahead remains difficult for the Dinos as they head west to face Trinity Western next weekend, while UBC heads home to host the Brandon Bobcats.

Source: Calgary Sports Info