Lions claim bronze after hosting the annual Excalibur Classic
Daniel Rependa
Contributor
On December 30, the York Lions competed for the bronze medal in the Excalibur Volleyball Classic hosted at York. The Lions faced the Toronto RuffRiders in an exciting five-set victory to grab a well-earned third place finish.
The beginning of the match foreshadowed a loss for the Lions, as they lost their first two sets.
The team’s trouble presented itself when they failed to place their hits in bounds. However, in the second set that was soon remedied. Although on the back burner and playing smart defensively, the Lions had great serving, phenomenal passing on behalf of the backcourt and setters, and consistent kill opportunities. Their defence was tight; although sometimes blocks were spaced fairly far apart, it was generally very strong.
The majority of the problem was that the Toronto RuffRiders were a senior team that had a very different style of gameplay, as opposed to the younger generation of university players.
“They play an old-fashioned type of volleyball,” says outside hitter Ray Szeto. “We’re not used to it really. They serve from very far away, they run different plays that we can’t understand. So sometimes it catches us off guard. But it works vice-versa because we do some things that they can’t understand too.”
With unexpected forms of attack, the RuffRiders seemed to have over all better ball placement than York. They regularly caught the Lions off guard with their trickily placed hits and abrupt send overs by their setter.
Thankfully, the Lions did not let this different style of gameplay catch them so off guard as to lose the match. After losing the first two sets, the Lions came back to win three in a row and finish the match strong with a victory. Their defence changed to accommodate the RuffRiders’ unorthodox style of play and the rest of the game ensured a Lions victory. As a younger team, the Lions outclassed the RuffRiders with their athleticism and endurance over the full five sets.
Now, although they have a bronze medal, the issue that needs to be approached is how this team is going to be able to translate these wins into the regular season.
With the latter half of the season to go, the Lions need to focus now more than ever so that they can forward this momentum into the OUA regular season and, hopefully, playoffs.
“This tournament is definitely the climax of our season. It’s the turning point for sure,” says Szeto.
And with an almost .500 record, the Lions could potentially achieve their playoff goals if the outcome of this tournament means anything at all with regard to regular season play. With five of the eight teams in the Excalibur Volleyball Classic competing in the Lions’ regular season league, this third-place win could actually mean a lot in terms of their future performance against these opponents.
The Lions have shown they are able to adapt to new styles of defence and offence. They have shown their passing and hitting is consistent and athleticism is something to be reckoned with regardless of the general shortness of their team. And compared to last season and the beginning of this one, where their passing was not as crisp and their defence was not as malleable as it is now, definite improvement has been shown. Now we can only hope that this might mean a good shot at playoffs. But for right now, third place is pretty nice.
