The Windsor Lancers women's volleyball team hosted the Waterloo Warriors on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon at the Toldo Lancer Centre.
The blue and gold managed to split the weekend series with the black and gold earning a 3-2 (25-21, 18-25, 21-25, 29-27, and 15-7) victory on Friday then dropping a tough 3-1 (26-28, 26-28, 25-16, 16-25) to the Warriors on Saturday.
WEEKEND STATS
Aliah Admans had a stellar offensive performance on Friday night with 26 kills while Danika Scharff earned 14 digs defensively and dished out 38 assists to help secure the win in a five-set finish.
Admans earned another 17 kills and had 14 digs on Saturday and Scharff added another 38 assists and had 2 service aces in the loss.
Marlee Horton scored 3 service aces against Waterloo on Saturday while Katie Murray was a presence up at the net with 6 blocks recorded.
FRIDAY GAME FLOW
The first set appeared to be an evenly matched affair between both squads that shared the colour gold in their uniforms as each side traded points and leads early on going into the midway mark of the set. By the late stages of the first set, Windsor found a way to build a lead that would make it tough for Waterloo to tug back into which allowed the blue and gold to close out 25-21 and take a 1-0 lead.
The Warriors would respond in the second set battling back with persistent play that remained consistent as they were able to overcome a deficit to the Lancers and find a way to push through to take the lead later in the set and round it out 25-18 to tie the match up at one set apiece.
In the third set, the high intensity stayed mutual and both sides continued to show that this battle was not finished yet.
The Warriors remained in the hunt throughout as did the Lancers but ultimately the teams would be tied up at 21-21 before Waterloo would go on to earn four more points and close out the third set on top 25-21 to take a 2-1 set advantage in the match.
In the fourth set, Windsor was still in the contest early on with the leads again being swapped back and forth between both teams before Waterloo held a four-point margin later in the set. The Lancers would tenaciously find a way to come back and overturn the deficit to eventually roll into a win-by-two scenario that required extra points.
The two squads met at 27-27 for the final tie of the set with the blue and gold determined to trigger a fifth set they were able to earn a huge kill then be rewarded on a Waterloo attack error to eclipse the Warriors 29-27 and push the game to the brink with a fifth set being needed to solve the stalemate.
Set five started off even once more before the Lancers would thrive off the momentum generated in the fourth set finish getting to eight points first to initiate the side switch and found a way to stay steady until the end cruising to a 15-7 win and capturing a huge home victory over the Warriors to start the weekend on top.
SATURDAY GAME FLOW
The first set was an expected battle that proved to be the case as both teams matched one another's intensity found ways to stay on a leveled playing field throughout.
Waterloo would come out ahead of Windsor ultimately despite the Lancers strong efforts which led them again into extra point territory with the Warriors taking the first set 28-26.
With a 1-0 lead, Waterloo again was met with more challenging plays produced by the Lancers who managed to still stick with them during the second set.
Windsor would again force extra points to be required as their equally matched consistency and persistence managed to push them to another 26-26 tie that eventually Waterloo would find two kills late to give themselves a 2-0 lead with another 28-26 win.
Determined not to be swept, the Lancers came out hot in the third set finding ways to score and create a wider gap on the scoreboard.
This allowed the blue and gold to generate more offense in their game flow and create a cushion that gave them momentum cruising to a 25-16 win and making it a 2-1 match advantage for Waterloo.
On the verge of attempting to force another five-set thriller, the Lancers were however tamed by the Warriors in the fourth set who appeared to not want to share that same sentiment of competing an extra set.
The Warriors jumped out to a huge lead that eventually expanded to 20-10 and found a way to get to the finish line despite the Lancers shrinking the gap late in the set.
In the end Waterloo would earn a bounce back victory 25-16 and take the match 3-1 to drop the Lancers record on the season to 11-7.
UP NEXT
The Lancers will now get set for their final two regular season games and travel up to the nation's capital to take on the Ottawa Gee-Gees on Saturday February 8th at 4PM and Sunday February 9th at 2PM. Fans can tune into OUA.Tv to catch the livestream broadcast for each game's live action happening up in Ottawa next weekend.
