The University of Toronto Varsity Blues women’s volleyball team defeated the Windsor Lancers 3-2 on Saturday (Feb. 17) afternoon at the Goldring Centre Kimel Family Field House. With the win, the Blues clinch fifth place in the OUA standings and will play their crosstown rivals, the TMU Bold, in the OUA quarter-final.
Set scores in the match were 19-25, 15-25, 37-35, 25-20, 15-11.
After dropping the first two sets, the Blues came back strong in the third set. Initially, the Lancers took the lead on the third set, but at 15-14 the Blues tied the set with a service ace from Julia Murmann. Following the tie, the Blues and Lancers would trade the lead back-and-forth. As a result, the Blues scored 11 set points with the final set score being 37-35. The Blues carried this momentum into the remainder of match winning two straight sets to win the contest.
The Blues led the Lancers on total attacks (223-196), kills (68-59), solo blocks (11-4), and assists (68-59).
Third-year outside hitter Murmann led the game with 31 points scored. Murmann tallied the points through 29 kills and two service aces. Teammate and outside hitter Olivia Zhu recorded 19 points from 17 kills and two solo blocks. Middle hitter Anna Gadomski also scored above double-digits this match. Gadomski registered 13.5 points from six kills, one service ace, six solo blocks, and one assisted block.
The Blues offence was set up by the duo of Robin Melnick and Anna Arellano. Melnick led the Blues with 40 assists, improving on her tally from the night before (19). Arellano recorded 20 assists in the match. Blues first-year libero Delaney Watson recorded a team-high 29 digs.
Outside hitter Yalia Sealy led the Lancers with a team-high of 28.5 points from 25 kills, three aces and one block assist. Fellow outside hitter Aliah Admans registered 19 points with 13 kills, two service aces, two solo blocks, and four block assists.
The Blues will return to action in the OUA quarter-final where they face off against Toronto Metropolitan University. Details to follow. The action can be caught online via oua.tv.