Sergiy Slipchenko | Staff Writer
Featured Image: Despite their best efforts, the Lions lost in straight sets to the Badgers last Saturday. | Courtesy of Jojo Yanjiao Qian/York Lions
On February 29, the Lions played the Brock Badgers in St. Catharines at the Bob Davis Gymnasium. It was the first round of OUA playoffs, and the winner would move on to the semi-finals.
The Lions brought a strong performance, but it was not enough to overcome the Badgers. The Lions had a history of struggling against the Badgers, having lost to them twice in the regular season.
The first set started out with the two sides neck-in-neck in points. Near the end of the set, the Badgers’ continuous offence gave them a nine-point lead, and they won the set 25-16.
In the second set, the Lions found themselves in a similar situation. They kept at the Badgers’ heels, and were only down two points late in the set, at 18-16. However, after a timeout, the Badgers pushed ahead to 25-19 and clinched the second set.
The Badgers’ early game had worn the Lions out, resulting in a final score of 25-14 in the third set, effectively sweeping the Lions out of the playoff picture. This loss is the fourth consecutive time that the Lions volleyball team dropped out of the playoffs in the first round.
The Lions had put up a good fight, but they made numerous errors which were reflected in the final score. In every set, the Lions had double the errors compared to the Badgers.
On top of that, the hitting percentage was extremely low at 0.065 against that of the Badgers’ 0.292. Although the Lions gave it their all, they could not keep up with their opponents.
The Lions finished the season with 11 wins and 14 losses, and although they weren’t successful at the playoffs, they had a good run.
The Badgers, with a 14-5 record, will continue on to the semi-finals to compete for the Quigley Cup. They will take on the Guelph Gryphons this Friday, March 6 at 6:30 p.m. at the University of Toronto’s Goldring Centre — the host location for the Quigley Cup semi-final and final matches.
