Unbeaten Gee-Gees earn second victory over Western Mustangs

"We needed that tough match, we needed to be pushed. They are a quality team and they exposed us just a little bit mentally. But we responded well and we adjusted some things that weren't working," said Gee-Gees head coach Lionel Woods. "I'm a little bit disappointed we weren't at our absolute best but we got better as we got through the match and that was really good."

The Gee-Gees were firing on all cylinders to begin the match, scoring the first four points of the first set thanks to solid serving from fourth-year setter Christina Grail and a powerful kill from third-year outside hitter Myriam English. However, uOttawa's success on offence was not sustained as the Mustangs, statistically the third-best blocking team in the CIS, tightened up defensively. Western took a short-lived 11-10 lead until the momentum shifted back in favour of the Gee-Gees, due to two timely kills from third-year left side hitter Karina Krueger Schwanke. Ottawa cruised to the 25-14 win after a 15-4 run; Grail had four aces in the first set to lead all players.

The two teams traded unforced errors early in the second set, with Ottawa taking a slim 13-11 lead at the halfway point of the set. The Gee-Gees increased their lead to 18-14 behind English's serving but a resilient Mustangs squad refused to cave in, taking a 23-21 advantage late in the set. While English scored the next two points to tie things up at 23-23, Western came up with the 26-24 win in the end.

Ottawa trailed 7-5 early in the third set, but battled back to take the six out of the next seven points with some stellar blocking on defence. The Gee-Gees steadily improved their play as the set progressed with sophomore Colleen Morelli scoring the final kill in a 25-18 win. And in the fourth and final set of play, Gee-Gees took seven of the first eight points in the set. While the Mustangs proved to be a formidable foe, kills from Schwanke ultimately finished off the feisty squad from Western as Ottawa won 25-23.

"Western's a really good blocking team so we had to really think on offence today. It was definitely a good experience for us and it'll help us as we face tougher teams later in the season," said fifth-year captain Kathryn Weihrer.

The Gee-Gees will head to Kingston on Nov. 23 to take on the RMC Paladins in their next match.

Gee-Gees leading players: Karina Krueger Schwanke 21 points, 17 kills, 16 digs, Stephanie Theiler 12 digs

Western leading players: Rebecca Oxland 10 kills, 14 digs, Stephanie Krueter 7 kills, 6 digs