GEE-GEES SERVE THEIR WAY TO A 1-1 START TO THE SEASON AT HOME
The Gee-Gees Women’s Volleyball opened the OUA regular season this past weekend with a pair of home matchups with the University of Toronto Varsity Blues. The Gee-Gees were victorious in front of a raucous crowd on Friday night, winning in a 3-0 sweep before dropping a 3-1 decision on Saturday afternoon.
Match #1: Gee-Gees 3, Varsity Blues 0
Gee-Gees 3, Varsity Blues 0 (27-25, 25-15, 25-23)
Comeback Kids
It was an evening of comebacks for the Gee-Gees in their first match of the season; the team battled back from significant deficits in both the first and third sets to claim a sweep over Toronto.
The Varsity Blues jumped out to an early 8-3 lead in the first set, taking advantage of a few Gee-Gees hitting errors.
Home-opener nerves might’ve been to blame for those misses, but they were nowhere to be seen from the service line. Gee-Gees middle blocker Keely Lloyd blew away the Varsity Blues’ passers with three straight aces to pull her team back into the set, and a 4-serve run from right side Nicole Hildebrand gave the Gee-Gees a 12-10 lead of their own.
The teams traded points throughout the middle third of the set, until two lengthy runs from the Varsity Blues put them firmly in control, up 24-20. After a kill by Camryn Giddens kept the Gee-Gees alive, and with their backs against the wall, Giddens further showed her clutch gene with three straight serves – including back-to-back aces on Toronto left side Olivia Zhu – to tie the set at 24.
Later, with the set tied 25-25, Christine Hachokake joined in on the fun by acing Zhu twice more to lift the Gee-Gees to a 27-25 win.
Pulling Away
The second set was pure domination by the Gee-Gees. They maintained their service pressure and took a quick 9-1 lead, including two more aces from Hachokake, who would finish with four on the night.
A pair of substitutions for the Varsity Blues – most notably middle blocker Marie Boulerice, who would stay in for the rest of the game – provided a spark off the bench that Toronto was in desperate need of, but they never got closer than seven points back of the Gee-Gees, who would comfortably win 25-15.
Team Effort
With the Gee-Gees on the hunt for a sweep in the third set, the Varsity Blues played them closer than ever – neither team had a service run of three points or more until the very end of the set.
Toronto took a 21-18 lead after back-to-back points scored by Boulerice, at which point Gee-Gees left side Audrey Odigie stepped up for back-to-back kills of her own. Two more serves made by setter Harper Schaefer would give the Gee-Gees a 22-21 edge, and they never looked back: up 24-23, serving sub Tara Gosling would ace the Varsity Blues one last time to complete the 3-0 sweep.
In total, the Gee-Gees put up a whopping 14 aces in 3 sets – Toronto never had a chance to get comfortable in rallies.
Gee-Gees Player of the Game: Camryn Giddens (8 kills, .400 efficiency, 2 aces)
Match #2: Gee-Gees 1, Varsity Blues 3
Gee-Gees 1, Varsity Blues 3 (18-25, 26-24, 22-25, 23-25)
On Saturday, the Varsity Blues’ clear emphasis was on serve receive and defense. Compared to the 14 receiving errors they had on Friday, they surrendered just 7 on Saturday – and that’s despite playing an extra set.
Varsity Blues’ libero Delaney Watson – who was a member of the Canadian Women’s National team during the VNL this summer – led both teams with 15 digs, and was much more assertive overall.
Toronto controlled most of the first set; after coming back from an early deficit to take a 10-9 lead, they never let the Gee-Gees back in. Though they fought hard, Ottawa was unable to tie the set back up – every time they got within one point (often courtesy of an Odigie kill), Toronto would pull away again, and the set culminated in a 25-18 win for the Varsity Blues.
Gee-Gees fight back
In a reversal of fortunes, the Gee-Gees bounced back to take the second set after falling behind early. Gee-Gees Head Coach Lionel Woods was forced into an early timeout while trailing 6-2, after Toronto left side Julia Liu aced Gee-Gees libero Jessica Goodman on a few occasions.
The timeout clearly worked, as both Goodman and the Gee-Gees bounced back in a massive way. Goodman was clinical on defense for the remainder of the match, totalling 12 digs and making a number of fantastic diving saves to extend rallies. The Gee-Gees, meanwhile, fought back to keep the set close until a four-point serving run from Odigie would contribute to their first lead, up to 22-19.
After failing to convert a 24-22 advantage, the Gee-Gees closed out the set the hard way; 26-24 in extra points.
Toronto closes it out
The third and fourth sets played out in very similar ways. Both sets were very tightly contested, with neither team having a real edge until the later stages. Unfortunately for the Gee-Gees, it was the Varsity Blues pulling ahead past the 20-point mark and refusing to let the Gee-Gees back in.
Toronto middle blocker Thea Ziesmann put together a four-point run to turn a 19-19 tie into a 23-19 lead in the third set, and Boulerice would later put up one of her four blocks in the match to close out a 25-22 win.
In the fourth set, despite some strong blocking from the Gee-Gees, and the first OUA kill for rookie Lea Pendergast, Ottawa was unable to convert a 22-21 lead. Ziesmann was the culprit once again, serving three straight – buoyed by a pair of kills from Zhu – to give Toronto a pair of match points at 24-22. Odigie would continue to make her mark on the match by recording a block to keep the Gee-Gees’ hopes alive, but she missed her serve on the following point, allowing the Varsity Blues to win 25-23 in the set, and 3-1 overall.
Gee-Gees Player of the Game: Audrey Odigie (16 kills, 5 digs, 1 ace, 1 block)
Instant Analysis
The Gee-Gees serving was clinical on Friday, and was undoubtedly the strongest contributing factor in the win. No Gee-Gee had double-digit kills – nine for Odigie, eight for Giddens, seven for Hildebrand, six for Lloyd – so the 14 aces they hit as a team were crucially important.
Their serve receive was better on Friday than it was Saturday. It may not show up as clearly on the stat sheet (2.3 receiving errors per set compared to 3.0), but Schaefer was in system more often on Friday, which may have been the difference. Still, aside from a few bad runs, I’m encouraged by what I saw from this passing unit. They’ve added flexibility by having Hildebrand on the right side as they now have four capable passers on the court at all times, and they used it to their advantage by switching between Giddens and Hildebrand as the third passer alongside Goodman and Odigie on several occasions.
With their commitment to Goodman as the starting libero, their other libero, Brynn Lewis, is freed up to be a serving and defensive sub. Lewis served for both Lloyd and Hildebrand at times, and stayed in the back row for full rotations when taking out the latter which allowed the Gee-Gees to run two-lib passing lines.
The team’s blocking and defense were also improved from a year ago. They put up 12 blocks on Saturday and eight on Friday, and had a pair of players reach double-digit digs on Saturday. Goodman and Schaefer each had 12 digs, the latter of which is especially impressive when considering she also recorded 31 assists and 3 kills as the quarterback of the offense.
Lloyd and Hachokake were very consistent presences at the net, both averaging more than one block per set over both matches. There’s still work to be done, as there were certainly issues with net touch violations and net penetration (leading to balls falling on their own side), but if this is how good they look despite some areas of improvement, I’m very optimistic about what this duo can do.
Up Next
The Gee-Gees have Halloween weekend off, before continuing their season-opening homestand with a pair of matches against the RMC Paladins on Nov. 7 (7 p.m) and 8 (3 p.m).
RMC (2-18 in 2024-25) lost both their games this weekend to the Trent Excalibur (0-20 in 2024-25), so the matches will be very winnable for a talented Gee-Gees squad that has playoff aspirations.
If you’re not in Ottawa to watch, you can catch me on the mic for both games (for free!) at OUA.tv
