GUELPH, Ont. - Friday night at the Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre, the Gryphons women's volleyball team suffer a 3-sets-to-1 loss to the visiting York Lions. Set scores were 25-18, 22-25, 23-25 & 18-25. With the loss, the Gryphons fall to 0-2 on the young season, while York improves to 2-0. 

Just as they did in last week's season opener, the Gryphons once again were able to get off to a promising start, taking the opening set 25-18. Helping lead the way early on was Guelph's OUA West First Team All-Star from a season ago in third-year standout Michaela Hellinga, who finished the night with a team-high 20 points (17 kills). While Hellinga was the focal point of the Gryphon attack, the visiting Lions received a balanced attack with four different players scoring in double figures. York, who came into the match 1-0 after defeating Nipissing in their season opener, would come out on top of a pair of tight sets in the 2nd and 3rd, respectively, before running away with things in the fourth set to seal the win.

"Our skill execution and communication on the whole was poor for large stretches of sets 2 and 3," said a disappointed Gryphons head coach Paul Funk. "We need to develop the ability to bounce back when things aren't going our way."

The Gryphons will have that opportunity next weekend (Nov. 10 and 11) when they play a pair of home matches against Western and Windsor to wrap up their four-game homestand to start the season.