GUELPH, ON – It wasn't pretty, but it was a win.
More importantly, it was a win that clinched a playoff spot for the Guelph Gryphons women's volleyball team.
The Gryphs swept the Windsor Lancers 3-0 on Saturday at the Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre, winning 25-12, 25-23, 25-20.
Their third consecutive win, and eighth win in their last nine matches, gives them a 10-5 record and leaves them solidly in third place in the OUA West Division.
But neither head coach
Paul Funk nor his players were entirely pleased with how they had performed.
"It's a huge win for us, because it guarantees us playoffs now. We're happy about that," Funk said. "But from a mental standpoint, it wasn't very good for us.
"Mentally, I don't think we did very well today in terms of our aggressiveness and going after things. That's one of the things that we've stressed this week – when things get late in the match, we've got to be mentally tough."
Several times during the match, the Gryphs had the Lancers reeling, but allowed them to recover and make the scores closer than they probably should have been.
For example, the Gryphs allowed the Lancers to save three set points in the second set before finally finishing it off. They also held 8-2 and 16-8 leads at the competition time-outs in the third set, and then had to withstand a determined Windsor comeback attempt.
"It was like we were already at the end of the match before it was over," Funk said. "We kept waiting for them to make mistakes, and they're a good enough team defensively that they weren't going to win it for us."
"We're a little disappointed in how we played," agreed
Jessica Gormley, a third-year middle blocker from Georgetown, ON, "but we're happy that we swept them and clinched a playoff spot."
Funk cited Gormley as a particular bright spot for the Gryphs on Saturday. She served seven aces and also contributed four digs on defence.
"Jess Gormley's serving really saved us today. She had a lot of aces and put them in trouble early in Set 1 and again in Set 3," the coach said. "Her serving really gave them problems, and that was one of the big factors for how we were able to stay ahead in those sets."
"I think it was just home-court advantage for us. They hadn't played here before," Gormley said modestly. "We were serving tough, and that's what we needed to do."
The Lancers drop to 5-10 and remain in fifth place in the OUA West.
Maddie Dedecker and
Libby Donevan each had 11 kills to lead the Gryphs attack, with
Michaela Hellinga adding eight and
Victoria Golebiowski contributing six.
Cayte Wilson had 32 assists.
Wilson led the Gryphs with 11 digs, while
Kayla McMullen had nine and Dedecker and Golebiowski each added eight.
The Gryphs close out their home schedule on Sunday at noon against the Western Mustangs at the Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre. The team will honour Dedecker, Wilson and McMullen as part of a pre-game Senior Day ceremony.
