The York University Lions women's volleyball team was defeated by the Ottawa Gee-Gees 3-0 on Sunday (Nov. 23) in Ottawa, Ont., giving the Lions a season split with their fiercest rivals.
 
The Gee-Gees won the first set 25-21, the second 25-11 and the third 25-19.
 
The Lions started the game strong with a kill from Michelle Pierce (Windsor, Ont.) to open up the scoring. The set was a constant battle with the Gee-Gees taking the lead first until a series of errors and kills by Abby Ganzhorn (Markham, Ont.), Brittney Hopley (Thornhill, Ont.), Pierce and Veneta Mincheva (Gatineau, Que.) tied the score or put the Lions ahead by one point.
 
The score was tied at 20-20 until service and attack errors from the Lions, and a kill by Kaly Soro won the set for the Gee-Gees.
 
The Lions began the second set with confidence and took an early lead due to kills by Mincheva, Cadence Currie (Scarborough, Ont.) and service aces from Pierce. The Gee-Gees caught up to the Lions and took the lead 12-8. After that, they hammered a downpour of kills on the Lions to take a commanding 22-8 lead.
 
Myriam English did not let the Lions catch up by the end of the set, helping the Gee-Gees win the second set 25-11.
 
The third set was another upset for the Lions as they took an early lead, but were shut down when kills from Kelsie English and Soro put the Gee-Gees in the lead 15-13. The Gee-Gees held their lead until the very end to win by six.
 
Leaders from the Lions side included Mincheva with seven kills and one block and Hopley, Pierce and Ganzhorn with four kills apiece.
 
English led the Gee-Gees with 14 kills and Soro had 12.
 
The Lions have slipped to 4-4 on the year and will try and rebound next weekend when they close out the fall semester with a pair of home games, beginning with a match on Saturday (Nov. 29) against the Queen's Gaels at 12pm at the Tait McKenzie Centre.