The Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks’ men’s volleyball team continued their futile start to the season on Sunday, falling in straight sets to the Waterloo Warriors. With the loss, the Hawks now find themselves in the throes of a five match losing streak; they haven’t won since their season-opener against last-place Royal Military College on Oct. 24.
“We’re fighting the way our opponents want to fight, rather than playing smart volleyball,” said head coach Shayne White. “Our record shows exactly what we’ve been doing. We’re fighting hard but not getting anything accomplished.”
The young Hawks’ squad – the roster features five rookies, and no fourth or fifth-years – seems to be suffering from their inexperience, as they’ve been unable to play with any consistency all season.
Sunday’s match was no different, as the purple and gold were plagued by missed serves, sloppy passing and sub-par defence, leading to the Warriors walking away with an easy win.
“They’ve been playing pretty well this year, but there was a lot of bad play on our side that made them look really good,” said White of the Warriors. “Overall, we need to work on everything; we’re just not doing a very good job in any area.”
In an attempt to send a message to his sputtering team, White started a line-up that was primarily composed of back-ups. This saw regular starters such as third-years Dave Hamilton and Erik Kroman as well as last year’s Ontario University Athletics (OUA) rookie of the year Sam Schachter on the bench until late in the first set.
“The second string has been doing really well in practice, so it was a reward for them, but at the same time we were trying to get our starters to wake up a little,” said White. “[The back-ups] showed some good energy, but we really couldn’t keep that going at all after the beginning of the match.”
The Hawks’ quest for their second win of the season continues this Friday when they take on the Guelph Gryphons at the Laurier Athletic Complex.
