The Windsor Lancers women’s volleyball team embarked on their first road trip of the season to St. Catharines this weekend to take on the Brock Badgers at the Bob Davis Gymnasium. Heading into the Friday night match up, the Lancers were riding a three-game winning streak.
The Badgers were also riding a formidable four-game winning streak of their own and remained flawless on the campaign with a 3-0 (25-16, 25-14, and 25-16) victory over the blue and gold to improve to 5-0 on Friday night. Brock again swept the Lancers on Saturday afternoon 3-0 (25-19, 25-13, and 25-14). The Lancers now drop to 3-4 on the year after dropping both games to the defending OUA champions from last season in The Garden City.
On Friday, first year Aliah Admans led the offensive charge for the Lancers with 6 kills on the night while Megan Gahima contributed 5 kills and Yaila Sealy scored 4 kills on the evening. The Lancers’ veteran setter Nicole Woelk also had an impressive game in her first homecoming game on the weekend as the St. Catharines native picked up 19 assists and 4 digs in her return to hometown. Brock was led by Madison Chimienti who had 11 kills and their setter Sara Rohr had 29 assists in the victory over Windsor.
On Saturday, Admans again led the Lancers offensively with 9 kills while Gahima and Emma Shepherd pitched in with 3 kills of their own respectively. Woelk dished out 21 assists in the second loss to her hometown team. Meanwhile, Brock was once again led by Chimienti for a second consecutive game with her 13 kills while Sadie Dick had 9 kills of her own in the win.
FRIDAY
The first set was a little shaky for the Lancers off the start trying to find a way to size up against the currently third ranked team in USPORTS but found themselves giving up one too many attacking errors and service errors from the serving line which dug a hole for them early in the set. However, to their credit, they were able to remain competitive through the later stages of the first frame and find a way to make the Badgers earn a first set win with a score of 25-16.
In the next set, the Lancer ladies were met with a series of strong offensive attacks from the Badgers which opened up the lead for Brock early on and never seemed to look back. The blue and gold would try to stop the pain with a timeout at 9-2 in the second set, but in the end the Badgers would go on to carry the momentum forward trampling over the Lancers 25-14 and go up 2-0 in the game.
The third set started off a little differently for Windsor when Sealy broke open the scoring with back-to-back kills to go up 2-0 and trigger a rare early timeout response from the Badgers coach. Although, it proved to be a challenge for the Lancers to maintain that lead and force a fourth set or beyond when the Badgers managed to overcome the adversity and battle back in their gym in a competitive third set that ended 25-16 and ultimately earned the Badgers their fifth consecutive win of the season.
SATURDAY
The opening set saw good action from both side with the Lancers showing great promise against the defending champions fighting hard for points early in the match. Although, the experienced Badgers once again found a way to harness their will to win which allowed them to dictate their play in the right direction and narrowly edge out the hungry Lancers 25-19.
The second set saw more Badger experience on display for the home team where they were able to snag a lead early in the set and not allow the Lancers any light to come back. Despite the scoreboard, the Lancer ladies fought hard to remain on par with the Badgers championship calibre play that instilled a sense of confidence to move forward into the third set after falling 25-13 to the 2021-22 OUA champions.
However, the third set would be reminiscent of the second with Brock continuing to defend their territory as they did not let up their consistent play down the stretch and remained disciplined on their play as the Lancers were instead haunted by service errors to give the Badgers some free points. In the end, despite a valiant effort by Windsor, Brock would remain on top to close out the third 25-14 and move into first place in the OUA while continuing to hold an undefeated record of 6-0.
UP NEXT
The blue and gold will now shift their attention to their last games of 2022 on December 2nd and 3rd when they travel to Lakehead to take on the Thunderwolves in Thunder Bay. Fans can catch the action on oua.tv or follow our social media pages including our Twitter for live updates.