The York University Lions women's volleyball team erased a 2-1 deficit to defeat the visiting Waterloo Warriors in five sets at the Tait McKenzie Centre on Saturday night.
At the beginning of the first set, the Lions were caught off-guard by the Warriors' energy as they rapidly accumulated points. The Lions were able to start bouncing back after a kill by
Melissa Smillie, and the rest of the team used this momentum to continue to climb the scoreboard.
Kayla Clennon entered the set and delivered a kill that temporarily tied the score 7-7. The Lions stepped up their defensive game and took turns diving across the court to keep the ball in play. They took the lead after the 10
th point, and after some nerve-wracking moments where the Warriors came close to overtaking the Lions, the Lions won the set 25-22.
The second set opened with a tight battle, with neither team holding a notable lead for a substantial amount of time. Unfortunately, the Lions began to fall behind, and were trailing 16-12 at the technical time out. After the time out, head coach
John May must have said something to spark some magic as the Lions returned to the court with more energy and aggression. They quickly added three consecutive points, which prompted the Warriors' coach to call a time out. The race to 25 points continued, and ultimately the Warriors regained the lead at the end, claiming a 25-23 win at the conclusion of the set to level the score at 1-1.
The Warriors once again raced ahead at the beginning of the third set, getting in three points before the Lions earned their first. The Lions continued to fall behind for a few points before turning things around and coming back to close the gap to 16-12 by the technical timeout. They fell behind again after the time out but managed to regain some traction, though the Warriors still came out with the win at 25-19 and took 2-1 lead in the match.
The stakes were high heading into the fourth set, as it was the Lions final chance to turn things around. The set started the same as the ones before – two teams in close contention, then the Warriors took a noticeable lead, and the Lions caught up and the score remained close. The Lions had a slight lead at the technical time out, at 16-15. The last half of the set was equal parts exciting and stressful and saw the Lions come out the winners 26-24 over the Warriors and tying the match at 2-2.
The Lions came back more determined to win than ever in the fifth set, and had a huge win of 15-8 over the Warriors in the final set to win their fourth match of the season.
Leading the scoring for the Lions was
Celeste Witzell with 22.5 points (17 kills, two solo blocks and seven assisted blocks), followed by
Sarah Williams with 18 points (17 kills and one service ace). Clennon had 25 digs, the most in the Lions roster.
Mimi Demski had the second highest number of digs at 19.
For the Warriors, Kayla Wierts led the scoring with 17.5 points (15 kills, one service ace and three assisted blocks). Sarah Remedios led the Warriors in digs with 19.
The Lions play their final match of 2017 on Sunday, Nov. 26 at the Tait McKenzie Centre. They will square off with the Trent Excalibur at 4pm.
