October 5th, 2004
IN THE LOOP UPDATE - GEE-GEES WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL

PRE SEASON HEADLINES (and updates)

Gee-Gees Name Roster After Toughest Try-outs In Years
After what proved to be the toughest set of decisions in years, the Gees came out of September training camp and try outs with a young, athletic squad that really seemed ready to see what could be accomplished. (visit www.ggvball.com for full roster details). The team this year is made up of just four players in their 4th or 5th year of eligibility, one 3rd year player and TEN kids in 1st or 2nd year.... great for the future, the unanswered question, where will we stand now ?

Pre Season Tourney At Ryerson Starts To Answer Some Questions... Bronze Is The Colour Of Choice
The Gees headed off to the first match tests of the young 2004-05 season (September 24th-26th). Five matches versus the best teams in Ontario, and a chance to see where we stand before it all gets serious. And what do you know? These young Gees go 4 & 1 and grab a BRONZE medal while notching wins against Ryerson, perennial rivals Queen's & two against Laurier - including a 3-0 win in the bronze medal game. The only loss of the weekend came at the hands of the Western Mustangs in a hard fought semi final on Saturday night, which opened with the Gees winning 31-29 in set one.....this was great ball for the first outing of the season. The tournament ended with Toronto beating Western 3-2 in the the final and an idea that this will be an exciting season in the OUA full close matches for sure.

#12 - Ellen Barwise - 5th year setter - named a tournament all star

Next Test, head west to see what we've got...
The Gees Compete in the Winnipeg "BOB FM Challenge"
The answer to the question - Yes we've got something indeed. Our fired up Gees come away with yet another bronze medal but more significantly, we do it with a nail biter win (15-13 in the 5th) over the Manitoba Bisons !! Yes I said the Manitoba Bisons. That would be the first win over the Bisons for the Gees in over 12 years. Manitoba is annually respected as one of the top women's volleyball programs in the country and the whole idea of heading west this year was to put our young squad right
into the fire to see what it is all about - the thoughts coming away...... these kids can play ! Other high notes from the weekend, we got to play Toronto in an early season match up and also came away knowing that the gap is not very big...a 26-24 loss in the third against Toronto seemed to be the TSN turning point of the tourney for our team. Almost everyone played in that match and most certainly everyone contributed - if not for a couple of unfortunate calls at the end of the match, the Gees may well have found themselves in the gold medal game on Sunday instead of the bronze - but in a show of early season maturity we came to the gym on Sunday with our best performance of the weekend and left Winnipeg just ahead of the snow and and a healthy dose of confidence in tow.

#5 - Christine Lamey - 2nd year wing player - named a tournament all star

So the Gees return home after two consecutive weekends on the road. looking to catch their breath, catch up on school and focus on the next two weeks of training to get ready for the McGill Tournament, as the final pre season tune up on the October 15th-17th weekend.

Looking ahead - the Gees will open the regular season at home":
vs the Brock Badgers
Saturday October 23rd
2:00 pm at Montpetit Hall

As always please remember we have great promotions for groups who wish to come to the game!
If you have 8 or more people who want to come to the game we can set up a package that includes a piece of pizza and a pop with your game day ticket - just contact Lionel Woods (lwoods@uottawa.ca or 562-5800 x4348)

Until the next IN THE LOOP UPDATE - have a great day and don't forget to check us out at WWW.GGVBALL.COM

Thanks for your support !!

Lionel Woods
& The 2004-05 Gee-Gees Volleyball Team