November 22nd, 2004
IN THE LOOP UPDATE - GEE-GEES WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL

Well - our Gees are keeping things as exciting as possible in the OUA East as our #9 CIS ranked squad dropped a couple of very close 5 set matches this past weekend to the York Lions (1st place) and Ryerson Rams.

Heading into the weekend, confidence was high after the great win at home against Toronto the week before but the always gritty Ryerson Rams came up with a big game indeed. We split the first two sets which saw some fairly scrambly play at times - but it seemed like we had turned the corner by beating the Rams 25-16 in the third set. Early in the fourth, though, one of our starting LS hitters (Ashley Keenan) went down with an ankle injury and we never seemed to be able to find our dominant rhythm for the rest of the match. To be honest the loss could be traced back mostly to unforced errors at key times - which from this coach’s stand point is usually a symptom of mental fatigue or a need to step up the focus. At any rate we played an exciting, grinding 5th set (which normally goes to 15) but came up short in a 22-20 loss to drop to a 5-2 record in league play.

Now the question for Sunday would be... with Ashley still out of the line up and a quick "tweak" in our rotation - what would our RESPONSE be on Sunday against the first place, unbeaten, York Lions. The answer to that question, we have some toughness indeed, but the final result still needs just one more level of grit or grind - one more notch of being able to just find a way to win in the end. The match started with York looking very impressive with a 25-20 win in game one. The next impressive thing however was our determination to make adjustments and take the second set in a 29 minute, 26-24 marathon. The next two sets followed the same pattern with York taking set three 25-18 but the fourth saw us bounce back again to take it 25-22 and force the second game 5 in as many days. The fifth set was more of the same type of play with long rallies and each team trading points all the way up to 12-12. In the final stand, again, our Gees seemed to be missing the final "push over the top" and York finished the match with some great serving and blocking.

The BOTTOM LINE - Our Gees dropped two tough matches BUT we are still at 5 wins & only 3 losses and fighting with Toronto for the second spot in the OUA East. York has played the most matches but still has most of the toughest West Division teams left to play in the schedule. There is no clear cut front runner at this time - York has won 3 of their matches against East division opponents by the same 3-2 margin. THIS SEASON IS GOING TO BE A NAIL BRIGHTER RIGHT DOWN TO THE WIRE !

The Gees finish out the first half of the schedule (before X-mas exam break) with two IMPORTANT home games this weekend - if you haven't seen this year's team in action - this Saturday's match against Queen's promises to be another outstanding match to watch!

GEE-GEES HOME FINAL HOME GAMES OF THE FIRST HALF

Saturday November 27th
2:00 pm match time
vs. Queen's University
Always a great match to watch !!

& Sunday November 28th
2:00 pm match time
vs. RMC (new to the league this year)

$3.00 – STUDENTS
$6.00 – ADULTS
GROUP PACKAGES AND DEALS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST
• Just contact me at the office by e-mail or phone to order your tickets
• lwoods@uottawa.ca – 613-562-5800 x4348

HOPE TO SEE YOU AT THE GAME!

Until the next "IN THE LOOP UPDATE"

Bye for now - Lionel & The Gees