GUELPH ON - The University of Guelph women's volleyball team dropped a tight 5-setter at home to the Queen's Gaels Saturday night. Set scores were 25-22, 20-25, 22-25, 25-13 & 13-15.

The Gryphons would start an unfortunate trend that would haunt them through the match as they were slow in starting the first set falling behind 9-3. They slowly clawed their way back into the set trailing only 16-14 at the technical timeout and forged ahead 21-20 late in the set. From there, they expanded the lead and took the set 25-22. Set 2 started similarly for Guelph falling behind 8-2 early on.This time however, the Gryphons were never able to come all the way back as they fell 25-20. Guelph started slightly better in the third set as the score was tied repeatedly in the middle of the set. However, a 3-0 Queen's mini-run late in the set was the difference as they took the third set 25-22. Set 4 was the only set where the Gryphons played with the lead as they jumped ahead early and built a big lead to win the set 25-13. Guelph's service reception had been exceptional in set 4 but abandoned them to start the fifth as they fell behind 8-3 at the switch. Once again, the Gryphons clawed their way back into the set as they got to within a single point at 11-10, but a couple of crucial unforced errors allowed Queen's some breathing room and they had enough to take the set 15-13.

Gryphons head coach Paul Funk said, "We had the good, the bad, and the ugly tonight. The good was the way we battled back at times tonight. The bad was repeated slow starts that put us behind the 8-ball for large chunks of the match, and the ugly was how inconsistent we were from set to set. Maddie really put us on her back and carried us at times tonight and Michaela Hellinga and Cayte Wilson did a good job coming off the bench tonight." Maddie DeDecker led the Guelph offense again with 21 points (18 kills, 2 aces, 1 block) while Michaela Hellingaadded 15 (14 kills, 1 block) and Kayla McMullen led the defense with 20 digs. The Gryphons next action is a crucial road match next Friday against Brock starting at 6pm.