The George Brown Huskies women’s volleyball season came to a heartbreaking end on Saturday (Feb 18) in front of a capacity crowd at the Casa Loma Athletic Centre in a 5-set loss to Niagara College (27-25, 25-19, 13-25, 19-25, 12-15).
HOW IT HAPPENED: The East Division 4th ranked Huskies faced off against the West Division 4th ranked Niagara College Knights in a do-or-die playoff crossover matchup that would see the winner advance to the OCAA Provincial Championship hosted by Sheridan College from February 22-25, 2023.
The first set was full of energy and lead changes to the very end, with the Huskies narrowly taking it 27-25. The momentum from the first set win carried into the second, with the crowd cheering the home team towards a 25-19 win and 2-0 lead. But the energy unfortunately seemed to fail the Huskies into the third set and fourth sets as Niagara opened up a big early lead in the third which George Brown could not surmount, and had control of most of the fourth. The Knights took the sets by scores of 25-13 and 25-19, respectively.
The fifth and deciding set was back and forth, point for point duel between the two evenly matched squads. But two back-to-back points late in the set is all Niagara would need to get the distance they needed from the Huskies to take the set 15-12, and the match, with a come from behind 3-2 victory to secure their spot in the OCAA Championships.
Although disappointed that the season has come to an end the way it has, Daphne Choi is still happy with the direction the program is moving in. “It’s not the result we wanted and it’s hard to feel like we were so close to what we wanted, but I think this is a test positive indication of where our program continues to grow – always raising the bar and improving”, the 6th year head coach commented after the loss. “We once again had a historic year, and again we are ending as the most successful women’s team in GBC program history. That is something for our athletes and staff to be very proud of.”
This year the women’s volleyball team held the program’s best regular season record since its inception, finishing with 12-6 (.667) and a 4th place finish in the OCAA East Division. With only one graduating senior this season in Ashley Lau, 2023-24 should look to pick up where this one left off.
“We have some exciting recruits and returners for next year which means we’re expecting our path to continue onward and upwards”, said Choi. “And finally, I'd like to give a shout out to our incredible support staff. With the events crew that we have here at GBC our home court is always an advantage and will continue to make it easy for us to come out and do what we have to do on the court to win games. They are second to none!”.
For the Huskies women’s volleyball full season results, visit our Schedule/Results page.
