Lancers edge Gyphons in five sets

The Windsor Lancer women’s volleyball team were able to overcome their five-set woes fresh off of back-to-back five-set battles last weekend with a thrilling 3-2 (25-22, 20-25, 25-22, 22-25, 15-10) five-set victory over the Guelph Gryphons on Friday night at the Toldo Lancer Centre.
 
STATS
Aliah Admans once again led the way for the Lancers offensively with 14 kills, 2 service aces, and had an outstanding defensive performance with 19 digs.  Emma Shepherd chipped in with 8 kills and 2 service aces while Jordyn Brearly had 7 kills for the blue and gold in the win.
 
Nicole Woelk had 28 assists, 17 digs, and 2 service aces in another all-around game for the Lancers veteran setter. 
 
Lancer second-year libero Sam Loshshan also shined with 10 digs against a contesting Guelph offence. 
 
Guelph saw a solid performance from first-year Briar Crerar who put up 12 kills, and 2 service aces in the five-set loss to the blue and gold.
 
GAME FLOW
The opening set saw the Lancers open up a gap between the two squads with strong serving coming from Woelk early on who picked up her two service aces then to break open the lead.  With Woelk’s serving run the Lancers were able to piggyback off that momentum and swing themselves into control throughout the majority of the set and propel to a 25-22 first set win. 
 
With the 1-0 lead, the Lancers knew that they could not afford to let their foot off of the pedal with the Gryphons wanting to lurk back into the game.  Despite both teams trading points throughout the second set, the Gryphons were able to maintain consistency down the stretch and close out late in the set with a 25-20 win to knot things up at 1-1.
 
Equalized in the match, third set volleyball saw more back-and-forth play between both sides as both Windsor and Guelph continued to exchange points based on steady play or courtesy of the other team’s errors.  It was the Lancers again who were able to lock in late and swipe the third set away from the Gryphons at the 19-19 mark when the Lancers took a lead and never gave it back to cruise to a 25-22 win and go up 2-1.
 
Guelph applied pressure in the early parts of the fourth set forcing the Lancers to have to use an early timeout when Guelph’s Samantha Ingleton scored from the service line on back-to-back service aces.  After that the Lancers struggled to keep consistency during the fourth despite a valiant effort to tie things up while in the middle of the set.  The Gryphons were able to close out after being deadlocked with the Lancers at 17-17 to coast to a 25-22 victory of their own and deadlock the game at 2-2.
 
Off to a fifth they went for a third consecutive game, fresh off a pair of heartbreaking resilient losses on the TLC home court last weekend, the determined Lancers managed to focus on getting over the hump and that they did by reaching 8 points first at the side switch point of the fifth and final deciding set.  They would then hold off the Gryphon attempt at a comeback by closing out 15-10 and securing the overall match 3-2. 
 
With the win in front of the home crowd, the Lancers now improve to 8-8 on the season.
 
UP NEXT
The Lancers are right back in action against the Gryphons again tomorrow afternoon at 2:00pm. Tickets for the event can be purchased at the gate of the Toldo Lancer Centre box office or here at golancers.ca. The game will also be livestreamed on OUA.tv where you can catch the action if away from the venue.