The Wilfrid Laurier women’s volleyball team took the court this past weekend and crushed the Ottawa Gee-Gees in three games straight on Friday night, but fell short to Brock on Saturday.
Their record before these games stood at 4-9 which did not show much promise.
However, winning their previous two matches against Waterloo and Lakehead proved that the Hawks definitely are hungry for more victories.
As the match progressed on Friday, the team seemed to be improving with every game. With some impressive recoveries and amazing blocks, head coach Luke Snider felt as though his team played an impressive game.
“Today we were able to execute the exact same way that we did the last couple matches against stronger opponents,” he said. “And a team that had more offensive capabilities than our past two wins. And so particularly to defend to the same level means likely that we defended better.”
Although proud of every member of his team, Snider thought that veteran Megan Gilmore was a great contributing factor to the team’s victory against Ottawa.
“I thought Megan Gilmore, our middle, was particularly outstanding,” he said.
“All the things that she has been challenged by me to do I thought she executed very well and kept a high consistency at a very high level. She had a huge impact in the last game.”
The Hawks took the Gee-Gees with scores of 25-15, 25-23, and 25-14. Despite her outstanding performance, Gilmore gives her team all the credit for Friday’s win.
“We played more like a team than we ever had before,” she said. “We just had a lot of team chemistry going on. It was awesome. We just looked to each other for support and we didn’t get over excited.”
Yet, with only four games left in the regular season, Snider believes the key for the team’s success is to continue what they are doing.
“I think we’ve done an excellent job of playing each match, one match at a time and as cliché as that is I think that’s been our greatest strength recently. We’re able to focus on the things we can control,” he said.
“We’re not placing undue pressure in situations because of any external factors with the season coming to a close.”
The hard fought loss to Brock on Saturday night brought the Hawks’ three-game winning streak to a close, and because of this loss, the team can no longer finish with a winning season, falling to 5-10.
The Hawks are back on the court on Feb. 4th, in London against the Western Mustangs where they will be put to the test to see if their strength and determination will hold up in order to finish the rest of their season with some wins.
Those wins will have to go towards building momentum for next season as with four regular season games left the Hawks have been eliminated from playoff contention.
