Algonquin College’s women’s volleyball team sweeps George Brown
The Algonquin College Wolves women’s volleyball team took down the visiting George Brown Huskies 3-0 on Nov. 22, improving to 5-1 in the season.
Sporting pink shorts for the Students’ Association Serve for the Cure, the Wolves won the game comfortably through their offensive output, both with kills and served aces.
The Wolves’ Carys Tenthorey and Chanel Ethier dominated the game, combining for 29 kills. Tenthorey had 16 kills and Ethier had 13 to outscore the entirety of the Huskies’ roster.
“I feel I did really well. They had kind of a shorter block, so I was able to go on top of them,” said Ethier. “Obviously, they’re a great defensive team. Finding the spots was tough, but I excelled, and I tried to do my best.”
Along with net contributions from Natasha Lauzon, Pasha Ormerod and Isabella Tourangeau, the Wolves overwhelmed the Huskies’ defence.
“My main goal was to close our block, so our defence could work around it. I thought that went pretty well, so I’m happy for myself on that,” said Ormerod.
The Wolves’ attack helped them navigate the small, rough patches they faced in the second and third set.
With her team up 11-9 in the second set, Tenthorey hit a kill to gain the serve back for Algonquin. She then served eight consecutive times as her power and accuracy overpowered the Huskies.
When the Huskies finally got the serve back, they regained momentum. They outscored the Wolves the rest of the way, but narrowly lost the set 25-21.
During this slump, Wolves head coach Everton Senior didn’t call a timeout, letting his players figure it out on the court.
“Sometimes, you just have to go with the flow of the game, and I feel like it wasn’t anything that they were doing, (the problem) was things we were doing,” explained Senior. “You just feel like the girls can figure things out on their own. It’ll make things that much better down the road if I’ve ever used two timeouts and we don’t have another one. They know they can figure things out.”
The win over George Brown marked the fifth in a season where the Wolves once again are chasing the Durham Lords and the Seneca Sting in the East Conference.
“I think today was one of our better games. We kind of had a rough last weekend, but I think we’re doing good so far,” said Ethier.
The Wolves seem geared up to be competitive against any opponent. They are ranked sixth in the OCAA power rankings and the talent of the roster is apparent in the stats and on the court.
The Wolves lead all OCAA teams for points and digs per set, while they are second behind the Sting for served aces per set. Senior’s team is spreading the contributions: there are two Wolves in the top 25 for kills per set, four Wolves in the top 25 for digs per set and three Wolves in the top 25 for served aces per set.
“We’ve got a really strong offensive team. We’ve got the girls on the court, we’ve got some girls on the bench who are strong offensive players, and any one of them can go off at any time,” said Senior.
The Wolves match up well to any team on most statistics, but 3-0 losses to both the Lords and the Sting could be a sign of weakness against the OCAA heavyweights.
Senior believes the team can compete with anyone when playing to its full potential.
“It’s going to be a really tough weekend. We’re going to have to play our best volleyball of the year,” he said. “But if we do that, I feel like we can definitely compete and beat both those teams. It’s going to depend on how we play.”
