Men’s volleyball moves to 5-4

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The Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks menโ€™s volleyball team seems to be following a pattern.

For the past three weekends, theyโ€™ve 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.

โ€œWeโ€™re not too concerned about it,โ€ said Laurier head coach Shayne White of the pattern his teamโ€™s fallen into. โ€œThe matches that weโ€™ve lost have been against some really good teams. Weโ€™re 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.

โ€œWhen we were good, we were really good. But when we were bad, we were really bad,โ€ said White of his teamโ€™s performance versus Western.

โ€œWe 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.

โ€œI 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. โ€œBeating Windsor was a great accomplishment for us, theyโ€™re 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 doesnโ€™t think his team will have any trouble getting up for the game.

โ€œToronto 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.

โ€œOur 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.

โ€œI think we play the top teams well, we just need to start playing well against them consistently,โ€ said White. โ€œThis 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€


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