2013 OUA Women's Volleyball Champions
The 2012-2013 women's volleyball team captured the OUA Championship in five sets against the York Lions, at York's Tait McKenzie Centre on February 23. Set scores were 25-23, 27-25, 14-25, 18-25, 15-13. It was Ottawa's fifth OUA conference championship and the first since 2006-2007.
Ottawa was a veteran team in 2012-13, returning almost every player from the previous year's silver-medal winning squad. The team's 16-2 regular season record was second in OUA, with one of the team's losses coming at the hands of York in a thrilling 3-2 battle.
The team steadily rose in the CIS Top Ten national rankings as Ottawa opened the regular season with a seven game win streak, reaching the no. 4 ranking nationally. The 2012-13 team's regular season winning percentage (.889) was the best under head coach Lionel Woods' tenure with uOttawa.
Left-side hitter Karina Krueger-Schwanke was named the OUA East Player of the Year and an All-Canadian in 2012-13. The team also featured OUA All-Stars Kelsie English (right side), Myriam English (left side), and Christina Grail (setter).
The team went on to be seeded third for the national championship tournament in Sherbrooke, and placed fourth.
RECAP : Gee-Gees are OUA champions
The Gee-Gees women's volleyball team came out on top at the end of a marathon five set gold medal match with the York Lions to capture the OUA Championship banner on the Lions' home court. Just when the Lions appeared poised to complete a remarkable comeback, the Gee-Gees put their heels in and won the fifth provincial championship in school history.
OUA Player of the Year Karina Krueger Schwanke scored the championship point, completing the Gee-Gees' thrilling response to York's 10-6 start to the fifth set.
"This is a feeling that I will never forget," said Schwanke after the match. The third year left side hitter landed twelve total kills, and fell to the ground after scoring the final point. By the time she stood up, she had been enveloped by head coach Lionel Woods and the team.
"Honestly, I didn't want to fall, but it was one motion trying to see where the ball was going and I just dropped of happiness."
Krueger Schwanke and Myriam English, who earned player of the match honours, were both key in the final nine points which brought the Gee-Gees the trophy. With York holding a commanding 10-6 lead, Woods called timeout and the team returned to the court with renewed focus.
English started the charge with a kill off the top of the York blockers' hands, and then stepped to the service line. Two York attack errors and an ace by English saw the score tied up at 10-10 and the match had turned back in Ottawa's favour.
English landed a second ace on the back line and Krueger Schwanke's left side kill extended the Gee-Gee lead to 12-10. Although York scored two more points, the Gee-Gees' passing was spot on in the final stages and Stephanie Theiler stepped to the serving line to deliver another ace, setting up Schwanke's dramatic winner.
"They just absolutely got us in the middle sets," said Woods, who won his second OUA championship in his 21 years as head coach. "We were team first, team always, stay aggressive, stay at it... it'll turn. These two matches were just the most consistent in terms of team-first attitude, which is what I'm so proud of."
Fifth-year captain Kathryn Weihrer, who described the team's attitude heading into the match as calm, relaxed and ready, echoed her coach's thoughts on team belief. "The first set was a tight set and we were all really aware of that. We've been practising since our season ended last year and we are a unit. When we were down in the fifth set, we just had to be reminded by Lionel or the girls on the bench to just calm down and trust that if we played our style, we would come out on top."
Ottawa captured the first two sets playing confident, aggressive volleyball. Their serving was on the mark and they were attacking at an efficient clip. Myriam English set the tone on the attack while her sister Kelsie started strong on the blocks. Ottawa withstood several York charges which were spoiled by service errors to earn a 25-23 first set victory.
The Gee-Gees continued to roll in the second set, thanks to some set-saving dives on the defensive side of the ball. Ottawa held a 19-17 advantage but York fought back to tie things at 21-21. An ace by Myriam English gave Ottawa set-point, but she sailed her next serve long. York's Michelle Pierce then landed two straight aces of her own before she was iced by a Gee-Gee timeout. Krueger Schwanke then provided a solo block on a right side York attacker following an unlikely key dig by Weihrer in the back row. Schwanke then made a diving save in the front row before righting herself to land the set-winning kill from the left side.
York came out strong facing elimination in the third set, surging to a 16-10 lead at the technical time out with critical kills from middle blocker Michelle Pierce and Jennifer Black. The Lions' strong play continued throughout the set, which featured clutch performances from Pierce, outside hitter Brandie Wilkerson (Innisfil, Ont.), and libero Carley Flemmer (Delta, B.C.), and they rolled through the Gee-Gees to take the third set 25-14.
The Lions rode the momentum from their strong third set well into the fourth, picking up 10 of the set's first 12 points. Ottawa would manage to settle the pace down with some timeouts and trailed just 16-9 at the technical time out. Though the Gee-Gees returned with some tough play, going on a 5-1 point streak after the time out, the Lions stymied their comeback effort and finished the set with a 25-18 win to force the all important fifth and final set.
As the OUA champions, the Gee-Gees earn the conference's one and only berth into the CIS Championships, which will be held at the University of Sherbrooke beginning Thursday, February 28. Seeding will be announced on Sunday evening. It will be uOttawa's seventh ever appearance at the national championship tournament.