The George Brown Huskies women's volleyball team (6-2) moved into 2nd place in the OCAA East Division after a nail-biting 5-set win over the visiting Canadore Panthers (5-2) on Saturday night (Nov 26).
HOW IT HAPPENED: Coming off a 3-0 sweep of the Loyalist Lancers the previous weekend, the Huskies were looking to jump ahead of the Panthers in the OCAA standings into second place with a victory at home. And the marquee matchup did not disappoint. From the first set to the last, the match was highly contested and left fans on the edge of their seats.
The 1st set had both sides firing out of the gates, with the Huskies and Panther's top hitters Jaque Ronquillo (GBC) and Taylor Grant (GBC), and Carlie Pappano (CAN) and Sarah Grassie (CAN) connecting on a number of early kills to start the match off in explosive fashion. Neither would back down without a fight with the lead seesawing throughout, but the Huskies took it by an exciting extended set score of 28-26.
The 2nd set was much of the same, but with Canadore coming out on top by a slight 25-22 advantage. In set three the visiting Panthers took a big momentum shift riding the strong play of Pappano and Domenica DeFrancesco, and took the set 25-17. But George Brown did not back down going into the fourth set down 2-1.
First year outside hitter Taylor Grant was confident that her team could force a 5th and deciding set given how they prepared for the match. "I think we all knew the weight of this game.", Grant said. "This was going to be a big mental game for us, we needed to get our minds right in practice during the week so we could display resilience in those moments during the game when we were down." And it paid off in the end with a come-from-behind win for The Huskies.
After bouncing back in the 4th set to take it 25-19, the 5th and final was as entertaining as the first. While Canadore jumped out to an early 7-2 lead, George Brown answered by rallying off six points in a row to take an 8-7 advantage into the midpoint changeover.
With the game on the line and tied at 13-13, Ashley Lau (4th Year) and Grant came up with two huge digs off of Panther kill attempts over the next series of points to get the Huskies to match point, up 15-14. The Huskies would seal the victory on a Canadore ball that sailed out of bounds over the baseline to take the set 16-14 and game 3-2 (28-26, 22-25, 17-25, 25-19, 16-14).
Lau ended the game with 15 digs, a number of them at crucial turning point times in the match. The senior Bachelor of Business Administration – Hospitality student has excelled in her libero position this year, constantly sacrificing herself to try and make plays and do whatever is needed of her.
As for Grant, it was the type of game she lives for. "I'm on a high. For the entire game I felt like I was holding my breath. There's something so rewarding about putting your everything on the floor and it going in your favour. Tonight's win is that I play for, and I'm so thankful I get to do it with this team as a Husky."
Head Coach Daphne Choi (6th Season) knows that competitive, close rivalry games like these ones can cause a tense and challenging environment.
"I am very proud of our team for persevering through this match and getting the win. Our athletes are learning through sport how to face challenges, how to accept circumstances, and we work on training them to remember how to overcome them when those tough situations come up.", she explained. "And we'll continue to learn from how we behave in moments of difficulty knowing it has lasting effects long after the game is done, and that these learnings also extend beyond the reaches of just being a student-athlete."
NEXT UP: George Brown will ride this high into the final game of the Fall semester, another tough match up against the fourth place Seneca Sting (5-2) next Saturday December 3, 2022 at 3pm at the Casa Loma Athletic Centre. Can't make it person, catch all the live action on our Huskies Livestream Channel!
