The Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks menโs volleyball team seems to be following a pattern.
For the past three weekends, theyโve come away with one win and one loss, culminating in their middle of the pack 5-4 record.
This past weekend they continued that trend, falling in four sets to the Western Mustangs on Friday night before downing the Windsor Lancers in a five-set battle on Saturday.
โWeโre not too concerned about it,โ said Laurier head coach Shayne White of the pattern his teamโs fallen into. โThe matches that weโve lost have been against some really good teams. Weโre more concerned about winning the first set and then completely falling apart later in the match.โ
That inability to continue the momentum of a strong opening set proved to be a problem once again for the Hawks in their loss to Western. After stealing a tight set 25-23 from the undefeated Mustangs, the purple and gold would drop the next three.
โWhen we were good, we were really good. But when we were bad, we were really bad,โ said White of his teamโs performance versus Western.
โWe won the first set; we had an opportunity to win the fourth and then if we had gotten to a fifth, who knows. But when we played very badly, they really stepped on top of us.โ
According to White, the Hawks were able to carry their performance from the fourth-set versus Western into their match against Windsor, which played a huge role in the win.
โI really liked how we responded in the fourth set and I think ending in that way led to us playing really well versus Windsor,โ he said. โBeating Windsor was a great accomplishment for us, theyโre a really good team.โ
The Hawks now head into their final weekend of the semester where they face a potential trap game on Friday versus the 2-6 University of Toronto Varsity Blues before taking on the always-tough McMaster Marauders.
Despite the Bluesโ weak record, White doesnโt think his team will have any trouble getting up for the game.
โToronto beat us twice last year and that was the reason why we missed the playoffs by one match, so I think we have tons of motivation,โ he said.
โOur goal is to be above .500 at the end of the first semester and Toronto is standing between us and our goal.โ
The Hawks will then have the opportunity to end the semester on a winning note versus a Marauders team who is usually one of the top teams in the nation, but currently sit just two points ahead of the Hawks.
โI think we play the top teams well, we just need to start playing well against them consistently,โ said White. โThis is probably one of the years where Mac is weak in some areas and this would be a year where we might be able to take them down.โ