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The Gees remain in contention for a playoff spot in the RSEQ. Photo: Marta Kierkus.
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Team remains tied for third in tight RSEQ conference amid playoff uncertainty

The women’s volleyball team was hoping for a better start to the second half of their season after going 5–5 in the first ten games. Instead they went 1–1 this weekend going up against McGill and the University of Sherbrooke.

McGill

After losing 3–0 to the first-place Université du Montréal earlier in the month, the Gees were hoping to rebound against the McGill Martlets on Jan. 21, a team they’ve managed to beat before.

McGill ran out to an early lead, with the Gees looking flat-footed. The U of O struggled to find their groove in the first set, and the Martlets easily took it by a score of 25–16.

The Gees played much better in the second set and actually led for most of it, going up 16–13 off of some solid play from their hitters. Unfortunately, they couldn’t close the set out, and McGill took it 25–22.

The Gees were a team on a mission in the third set. Their offense was firing on all cylinders, and they had some great hits from third-year Carline Lemay. McGill continued to play a solid game, staying within four points of the Gees throughout the set.

Though it was close right until the end, the Gees took the third set by a score of 25–20.

Though they played valiantly in the fourth, the Gees weren’t able to complete the comeback, losing that set 25–21.

“We can’t play like that,” said head coach Lionel Woods after the game. “You can’t play catch-up the entire match because then you run out of steam, you exhaust so much energy … and we were playing from behind pretty much the whole time.”

Fifth-year setter Kira Tome said everyone on the team needs to do a better job of starting future matches on the right foot.

“We just need to find something that gets us all pumped up, ready to start a game,” said Tome. “We just need to start the way we finish games.”

Sherbrooke

The Gees played a much more complete game against the Sherbrooke Vert et Or on Sunday.

They won the first set 25–19, but Sherbrooke came back and tied the sets at one apiece. The Gees eventually shut them down, taking the next two sets 25–16 and 25–15 respectively.

In the wake of this series, the Gees now hold a record of 6–7, and are in a three-way tie for third in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ). Only the top four teams make playoffs, so while they’re in the thick of it they aren’t guaranteed anything yet.

In such a tight conference, every game is important, and the Gees can’t afford to stumble down the stretch.

The Gee-Gees’ next home game is on Feb. 4 at 2 p.m. in Montpetit Hall. You can purchase tickets from the Gee-Gees’ website.