Although Ottawa rolled to a three-set victory, it was by no means an easy affair. The teams battled to a 26-24 score in the second set following Sherbrooke's eight-point comeback attempt in the first set. The third set saw the Gee-Gees fight back from their only significant deficit of the match, and once again it was Karina Krueger Schwanke who delivered the final kill, giving the Gee-Gees a 25-20 win.
The second set featured a key series of plays by rookie middle Sophie Chenail, who earned player of the game honours for Ottawa playing in front of her hometown Sherbrooke crowd. The 5-foot-11 Chenail was subbed into the match with the score 7-6 in favour of the Vert et Or and she immediately made a pair of athletic digs in the front row.
By the time Chenail rotated back into the front row, Ottawa had stretched their lead to 21-16 thanks to a one-handed tip by setter Christina Grail and an ace by Kelsie English. Chenail then provided the highlight of the match by hammering a quick middle attack straight down onto the attack line where the Sherbrooke libero was in position but could not react quickly enough to handle the bomb.
"Our team spirit is incredible... I just owed them that kill and I'm glad that I did it in such an important game," said Chenail, who entered only fourteen sets this regular season. "They were there all year always cheering with me and smiling with me, telling me to keep working. I'll remember this for a long time."
"It's not always volume, it's the right thing at the right time," said head coach Lionel Woods of his player of the match. "I don't know why it felt right [to put Chenail in], but it made them change a little bit and then she got that crushing kill which put the momentum right back again. That's player of the game right there - she kept us rolling when we needed it."
Following Chenail's big hit, she also made a solo block on a back row attack attempt by Sherbrooke to earn the 23rd point of the set. That allowed Steph Theiler to send a pass over to Krueger Schwanke who finished the second set with a hard volley, overcoming the Sherbrooke charge which saw the game tied up at 24 apiece.
Sherbrooke then established an 11-6 lead to open the third set, and they seemed to hold the momentum after winning the longest rally of the match to go ahead 13-8. However, that play saw Kelsie English deliver a third hit over the net via the volley while kneeling in the backcourt, and English's refusal to quit spurred the Gee-Gees to their comeback.
Ottawa went on a 6-1 run to tie the score at 14-14 and then jumped out to a 17-15 lead with a kill by Myriam English. With Kelsie English serving, the Gee-Gees extended their lead to 21-17 and appeared to win the next point when Sherbrooke was whistled for a violation at the net. However, after some discussion, the point was replayed. A soft roller by Karina Krueger Schwanke won the re-served point, and after Sherbrooke made things a little difficult for the Gee-Gees at the end, Schwanke came back with the winning left-side kill.
Krueger Schwanke and each of the English sisters totalled ten points in the match, while Sherbrooke's Roxanne Hesseni was the leading scorer of the match with 14.5 points. The Gee-Gees attacked at a .211 percentage and made eleven blocks to Sherbrooke's seven. Ottawa was also strong at the service line, landing seven service aces to just six errors, while the Vert et Or struggled with ten service errors.
In the opening set Ottawa charged out of the gate and earned the first four points of the match, forcing Sherbrooke to regroup with an early timeout. The Gee-Gees did not let up, rather they extended their lead to 15-8 and forced Sherbrooke to burn their second timeout.
This time, Sherbrooke came back looking dangerous with Hesseni and Catherine Martin landing some ferocious kills. The Gee-Gee backcourt had a rough string of points with the score at set point, allowing Sherbrooke and their home crowd to climb back into the set with four straight points before fifth-year middle Kathryn Weihrer ended things with a tip to her right, wrapping up the first set 25-23.
The Gee-Gees advance to the national semi-final for the first time since the 1981 team which captured a bronze medal at the national tournament.
The last OUA team to reach the CIS semifinals was the University of Toronto in 2001, when they finished fourth.
BOX SCORE:
1 2 3
Ottawa 25 26 25
Sherbrooke 23 24 20
