uOttawa will play the fourth seeded team at the tournament, the Trinity Western Spartans, in the bronze medal game at 1 p.m.
The garnet-clad Gee-Gees captured the first set 25-17, looking strong and ready to meet the challenges of playing on the national stage. Excellent serving and blocking carried Ottawa to a 20-12 lead and while Alberta made a mini-run to pull within four, a series of Alberta errors ended the first set.
Kelsie English, who led the Gee-Gees in points on the night, served up two of her three service aces in the first set. She finished with twelve kills and 25 digs as she was active all over the court throughout the match.
"We proved that we deserve to be here. We are a top four team in the country, and I am so proud of my team mates," said the third-year right side hitter. "We're going for a medal tomorrow, we're going to play as hard as we can to try to bring the bronze home."
Ottawa jumped out to another lead in the second set, punctuated by a huge kill by English to make the score 7-4. A Kathryn Weihrer ace on a low serve and well-placed attacks into the corners of Panda territory pushed that lead to 14-9 before Alberta called for timeout and turned the match around with a 5-0 run.
The Gee-Gees recovered momentarily, trading points with the Pandas until Canada West first team all-star and national team member Jaki Ellis nailed a big line kill to give her side a 21-17 advantage. An ensuing rally featured four remarkable diving saves by the garnet and grey, but Ellis landed another kill and Alberta tied up the match with a 25-20 second set victory.
Alberta continued to befuddle the Gee-Gees in the third set, taking advantage of a slightly flat Ottawa crew to establish an 8-1 lead. Ottawa's offence faltered, while Alberta cleaned up their own serving issues to maintain control of the set all the way through to a 25-11 score.
The fourth set proved to be the most dramatic of the night - the teams looked well-matched as they went at each other blow for blow. Myriam English kicked off the set with plenty of power behind her swings, leading to an 8-7 Ottawa lead. Alberta then took five straight points before a massive block by Karina Krueger Schwanke and Alix Durivage re-energized the Gees.
Aces by Weihrer and Schwanke helped Ottawa even the score at 15-15, and another tough serve from Durivage forced an Alberta free ball which Ottawa converted with Kelsie English coming up the chute into the middle for a clear kill to go ahead 19-16.
Weihrer came up big in the late stages of the fourth set, landing two kills and contributing to the tenacious Gee-Gees defence which put the squad ahead 23-20. However, Alberta came back with an ace and a kill of their own to tie things up at 23 apiece before Krueger Schwanke unloaded a huge left side kill and a Kelsie English tip sealed up the fourth set for Ottawa.
"I could not be more proud than I was during the fourth set - us coming back the way we did. We gave ourselves a shot," said head coach Lionel Woods. "We just played full out volleyball, with all its mistakes and all its good stuff. That's the game. It was just two really good teams going at it."
In the fifth, Alberta claimed a 7-4 lead before Kelsie English scored with a block and a kill back-to-back and Alix Durivage served up an ace to give Ottawa the lead at 8-7. Krueger Schwanke and Myriam English won a rally which featured a sprawling save to keep Ottawa ahead at 9-8, but a big kill by Alberta's Canada West second team all-star Krista Zubick proved to be the point which turned Alberta around. The Panda blockers came up big on the next two plays, and an ace by Alyssa Jones put them ahead for good.
The Gee-Gees still have a chance to become the first OUA team since the 1991 York Lions to capture a medal at the CIS championship. They will face the Canada West runners-up, Trinity Western, at 1 p.m. on Saturday. The game will be broadcast live on CIS-SIC.tv.
BOX SCORE:
1 2 3 4 5
Ottawa 25 20 11 25 12
Alberta 17 25 25 23 15
