Wolves women’s volleyball team goes 1-1 in first home games of 2023

The Algonquin Wolves women’s volleyball team started their weekend with a 3-1 loss to the Seneca Sting on Friday, and after vowing to “destroy” their next opponent, they ended Saturday with a 3-0 win over the Loyalist Lancers.

Seneca took the first set 25-20 on Friday. However, the Wolves came out strong in the second set. The Wolves took a 7-1 lead before the Sting battled back, bringing the game within three points. The Wolves regained the lead and won the set 26-24.

“We got out to a nice lead and then let them back in, and we had some key serves. Erin (Cunningham) came in off the bench and served well for us there and got us back into it,” said Wolves head coach Everton Senior. “From there on our errors were not as egregious as they were in the other sets.”

“We didn’t give up at all and once we lost a point we got it back right away. I think that’s the difference from the other sets,” said the Wolves’ Morgan Ott.

With the sets tied at one each, Seneca came out hot in the third set. The Sting took a 10-5 lead over the Wolves and never looked back on the way to a 25-15 win.

“When we can minimize errors we can be a lot better. We made too many errors,” said Senior.

The fourth set started the same way the third one ended. Seneca took a 17-9 lead, but the Wolves would not go away easily. They rallied to bring the set within two. The Wolves continued to fight until the final point but ended up losing the final set 25-21.

“This was a big one for us that we didn’t get, so we are going to have to come back with that same fire (Saturday) and with the same intensity. I think if we do that we’ll be fine,” said Senior.

“We are angry now, so we are going to destroy the next team,” said Ott.

The Wolves were out for redemption on Saturday and got it when they played Loyalist.

They led the first set with four points out of the gate and battled their way in a close point-to-point battle, winning the set 25-22.

After another good set for the Wolves, resulting in a 25-14 win, they were one set away from a 3-0 win.

“I feel like we brought a lot of energy from yesterday that we didn’t have as much. And today in the first set we started off a little slower, but then we gained our momentum, and we kept going,” said the Wolves’ Kieran Raymo,

“We love home games; we thrive off of them,” Raymo said.

In the third set, the Wolves were quick to score first and keep their lead, clinching a win over Loyalist with a 25-19 score in the third and final set.

“We want to have a home playoff match and for that to happen we need to win our final five matches. Cliché, but one match at a time and see what can happen,” said Senior. “We got a couple of tough matches ahead of us for that to happen.”

The Wolves’ next game will be at home versus La Cite Coyotes on Jan. 27.

— with files from Rebekah Houter