Gryphon volleyball women advance to OUA Final Four
TORONTO – The Guelph Gryphons will definitely be the underdogs in next weekend’s OUA women’s volleyball league’s Final Four tournament.
The Gryphs were the only surprise victors in Saturday’s quarter-finals as they slipped by the Ryerson Rams 3-2 at Ryerson’s Coca Cola Court in the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
The other three quarter-finals all finished with 3-0 sweeps by the home teams – Toronto Varsity Blues (17-2) over Waterloo Warriors (11-8), Brock Badgers (14-5) over York Lions (10-9) and Western Mustangs (13-6) over Queen’s Gaels (12-7).
The Gryphs had finished third in the West Division at 12-7 while Ryerson was second in the East at 16-3.
This is the Gryphs’ first trip to the Final Four since they hosted them in 2015. They’d lost in the quarter-finals in 2016, 2017 and 2018 and didn’t qualify for the playoffs last year.
Saturday, Guelph rebounded from a 25-22 loss in the first set with a 25-22 win in the second set and a 25-21 win in the third set. Ryerson took the fourth set 25-18 while the Gryphs took the fifth set 15-11.
The Gryphs had a .187 kill percentage with 64 kills, 55 assists, 12 aces, 78 digs and nine blocks. The Rams had a .216 kill percentage with 59 kills, 58 assists, seven aces, 94 digs and seven blocks.
Alexandra Proulx had 19 kills while Jessica Chung had 13 and Lisa Wedel 10. Alexandra Curran collected 50 assists and 16 digs while Chung had 14 digs and Jade Ziebarth had 12. Ziebarth also served up six aces while Cassidy Collins had three. Proulx and Wedel each had two blocks.
Cailin Wark had 20 kills for Ryerson while Brett Hagarty had 12. Lauren Wong had 41 assists while Wark had two aces. Hagarty had 28 digs while Samantha Cyrille had 18 and Wark had 11. Lauren Veltman, Wong and Lindsay Kleuskens each had 1½ blocks.
By qualifying for the Final Four, the Gryphs are to play for a medal next Saturday.
As the lone East Division quarter-final survivor, the Toronto Varsity Blues are to host the Final Four Friday and Saturday.
Games and game times have not been announced. According to the University of Toronto’s athletic website, the Blues are to play Western Friday at 4 p.m. That would put the Gryphs against Brock, possibly at 7 p.m.
Semifinal winners get berths in the U Sports national championship tournament at Calgary March 13 to 15.
Gryphons 3 Rams 2
Ryerson 25 Guelph 22
Guelph 25 Ryerson 22
Guelph 25 Ryerson 21
Ryerson 25 Guelph 18
Guelph 15 Ryerson 11
Click here for boxscore
- Guelph Sports Journal