GUELPH – Paul Funk and his Guelph Gryphon women's volleyball team are preparing for a playoff match this week. That seemed extremely unlikely only a couple months ago. And the Gryphons remember the feeling well. In late November, the team dropped a home match 3-1 to the Ryerson Rams, which gave them a dismal 1-8 record to end the first half of the OUA season. It was a low point for a young Gryphon squad that had made the postseason the previous year.

Funk, and his roster packed with first-year players, were in search of answers. So the head coach checked the tape to find some.
 
"It wasn't that long ago that we were looking at a long second half of trying to find moral victories," Funk said. "But after watching all of our matches again, it jumped out at me. I ended up tracking our unforced errors. We were making a ridiculous amount of them and honestly, we were just beating ourselves.
 
"I figured that we would need eight wins to make the playoffs. I didn't know if we were going to get there but I knew that we had to improve our own play by cutting down on errors."

 
That one focus has played an integral role in Guelph's improbable finish, a stretch of eight wins in 10 matches, including a dominant straight-set victory in Windsor last Sunday that clinched a playoff berth. The Gryphons will head to Toronto to take on the powerhouse Varsity Blues, a team that went 15-4 in the regular season to place second in the OUA East standings. The match gets underway Saturday, March 3 at 1 pm (live on oua.tv).
 
Not many teams in any OUA sport this season are more deserving of the opportunity Guelph has earned.
 
"They're excited, for sure," Funk said of his team. "They realize that if they can get a win on Saturday, the story will get even better."
 
Eight wins in 10 matches doesn't mean the Gryphons have become complacent. One of those two losses came against Toronto in a five setter back on Feb. 9. They're well aware of the danger presented by the Varsity Blues and their high-powered attack, led by third-year star and OUA kills leader Alina Dormann (245). Funk said his players will have to do a better job of slowing down Dormann, who had 23 kills in that last match. But Dormann isn't the only problem on a deep team that has the ability to make key adjustments in matches. Guelph will rely on the same approach that got the team to this point – playing together, defensively and offensively.
 
"We're not going to change our plan now," said Funk. "For us to be successful, we need to have everyone contributing."
 
That's been a characteristic of the team as soon as the calendar turned to January. An exhibition win against Ottawa over the Christmas break maybe offered a glimpse of what was to come but the turnaround since has been amazing. Senior middle blockers Libby Donevan and Jessica Gormley have been the glue and the team has evolved offensively with second-year setter Alex Curran orchestrating a balanced attack that utilizes explosive second-year left side Michaela Hellinga (sixth in the OUA with 208 kills), third-year right side Laura Duncan, as well as critical rookies Hazel Atkins and Jessica Chung. Liberos Kayla McMullen and Tara Tanasijevic have provided the defensive spark.

 
"That's been our deal since we've gone on this streak," said Funk. "We need to be a team rather than have one or two players carry us."
 
The added emphasis of setting goals to minimize errors gave the players something concrete to focus on – not just every match but in each set. The transformation happened quickly. By the second week back after the Christmas break, the Gryphons were hitting their targets and most importantly, weren't beating themselves.
 
"We made the other team play the ball more often," says the coach. "That was our slogan – make them play."