Brock Press

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Inconsistent week leaves Badgers in playoff contention

Travis MacKenzie

Issue date: 1/15/08 Section: Sports

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Media Credit: Dario Ayala

The Brock women's volleyball team finished a weekend in which they won one match and lost another, happy with their performance in one game and disappointed with the other. Surprisingly, it was the win in which they were upset, and the loss that they were less bothered about.
The Badgers' weekend commenced with a 3-0 victory over the lesser-regarded Ryerson Rams. It was this that Brock head coach Lucas Hodgson viewed as a "big letdown" despite the convincing result. In all three sets, the Badgers nearly gave away convincing leads, allowing Ryerson to make things difficult.
"We just played lackadaisically, got in the lead, and felt, 'game's over, we don't have to worry about it anymore'," said Hodgson. "We just kind of take it lightly, and you can't do that. You'll get killed every time."
In the first game, the Badgers were unsuccessful in their initial three attempts to put it away before pulling out a 25-23 win. In the second game, Erin Mercer (who led the team with 14 kills in the match) and Victoria Van Gilst commandeered the Badgers to a 16-8 lead before the visiting Rams rallied, mostly off of Brock errors, until a shot from Ryerson's left side hit the net, saving the Badgers from a near-major collapse.
In the third game, an Alex McKee service ace was a large part of a 6-0 run that gave Brock an early 11-6 lead, but a late Ryerson 10-5 run, which included Brock missing four straight match points, kept the Rams in the game.
The tedious match ended on a highlight reel play in which Ryerson twice made spectacular athletic plays before a blocked Mercer attempt deflected out-of-bounds, giving Brock a Saturday win.
Aly Fast led all players with 35 assists, and Meghan Melissis led the Badgers with 18 digs against the Rams.
"I think we took it a little bit for granted," said Mercer of the team's inability to quickly finish games. "Against weaker teams we don't play as hard as we should, so we've gotta keep our heads in the game and make sure we push for every point."
The next day, the team returned to the court to do battle with the Toronto Varsity Blues, the best team in the Ontario University Athletics East Division. Though Brock had to be considered the underdog, they played a much taller Toronto team tight for the majority of the first game before a late 5-1 Blues run set Toronto up for a 25-19 win.
The second game provided a back-and-forth affair in which the Badgers, after falling down 17-11, outscored Toronto 14-4 the rest of the way behind the game's leading scorer, Van Gilst (15 kills, 10 digs). Unfortunately for the Badgers, after the first game fatigue seemed to settle in on the Brock side. Toronto's tall front line, which was surprisingly out-blocked for the match, began to take over, winning the final two games 25-18 and 25-19, respectively. Fast led all players in digs (20) and led Brock in assists (34).
"You can see that their height played a factor at the end when we got a little bit tired and they didn't have to jump as high," said Hodgson, who also stated that he thought the Badgers played a better match than in the previous day's win. Van Gilst agreed with her coach.
"We played extremely better," said the fourth-year middle. "It was a whole different team today [Sunday]."
The loss on Sunday leaves Brock with a lot of work to do if they hope to make the playoffs. A big mid-week win over Laurier put the Badgers within a game of a playoff spot, but the weekend split, in combination with a Saturday win for Laurier, puts Brock an extra half-game out of the OUA West's final playoff berth with only five games to play.
The Badgers play their next two games on the road, before returning home for a Feb. 1 match with the Ottawa Gee-Gees.

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