Gryphon will be hosting the Final Four of the OUA women’s tournament
The match played on Saturday at the Mitchell Athletics Centre proved to bring good fortune to the Guelph Gryphons. Their victory over the Brock Badgers in the quarterfinal match of the OUA women’s volleyball has earned the Gryphons the honour of hosting the Final Four semi-final matches.
The Gryphons have been able to achieve the much awaited hosting duties by defeating the Badgers in a match that went on till four sets. When it finally came to its end, the score board was showing set scores of 25-18, 18-25, 25-19, 25-17 in favour of the Gryphs.
However, the Gryphs had a hard time sealing the deal this time around as the pressure was at its peak. Apart from their own nerves, the Badgers put up a commendable fight as well. The underlying tension in the game was almost visible as the Gryphs took a time out in the third set to settle down and gather their wits. Playing against the Brocks has always been something of a challenge for the Gryphs recently.
Paul Funk, the head coach of the Gryphon team expressed his feelings regarding this in the following manner: “I said to the girls that there’s a time in every season when you have to face your demons and to a certain extent, Brock has been our demon for the last couple of years. From that point on, we pulled it through.”
Funk also added that the weekend’s match was tougher for the Gryphons as they had not got to this point last time around. As a result the team players were more on edge than they will probably be the coming Saturday, when the semi-final is scheduled to take place.
Even the Gryphon team members feel more confident this time around. According to Brooke Lloyd, a Guelph player, there is more synergy in the team than there was the previous year. He expressed himself in the following words: “We’re a team now. Before, I felt that we were separated in some aspects. Now we play together, we do everything together, we play as one unit and that works to our advantage, that’s for sure.”
Apart from the Gryphons, the three other teams that have qualified to be a part of the Final Four are Ottawa, Western and York. In the season so far, Ottawa has been able to earn to their credit a total number of 13 wins at the expense of six losses. Western has fared slightly better, with 15 wins and four defeats. York, on the other hand has managed fourteen wins while suffering five losses.
The Gryphons are up against the Ottawa women’s volleyball team in the semi-finals. It is a matter of time to see how worthy the Gryphs prove themselves of the trophy.
Tags: