THUNDER BAY -- Growing pains are to be expected for almost any team at the start of a new campaign.
The road toward cohesion is complicated when that group is loaded with a bunch of new pieces.
That was a lesson learnt Saturday night by the Lakehead Thunderwolves volleyball team, as they were swept (18-25, 23-25, 15-25) by the University of Toronto Varsity Blues in their season opener at the Thunderdome.
The Lakehead roster featured seven active new faces, as well as a starting lineup that had four players who primarily came off the bench last year.
Thunderwolves head coach Chris Green knows such a relatively inexperienced group will need time and experience to be able to fully execute their strategy.
“This is the process we have to go through,” Green said.
“This game is frustrating to lose. We were prepared and they did exactly what our game plan said they would do. We didn’t execute and that’s the key. I guess that’s what happens with young teams.”
Middle Jasmine Fox and hitter Jennifer Casey are the two holdover starters and were joined in the opener by setter Vanessa Masters, hitters Olivia Bowman and Kailan Robinson along with middle Stephanie Chartrand.
Masters, a Thunder Bay native in her fourth year, had 18 assists in her regular season debut in the new role.
“I think because we’re a young team we have to learn to work together,” she said. “When we get a big kill or big block we have to build off our momentum and keep working through that and when we make an error figure out what went wrong quickly and correct it.”
The first set started out competitively, as the two teams hit the technical timeout separated by a single point, with Toronto up 16-15.
The Varsity Blues proceeded to dominate from that point, winning nine of the set’s final 12 points to draw first blood.
The second set was a seesaw battle, as the lead swung back and forth on multiple occasions.
Lakehead had two late leads, up 19-18 and 22-21 before Toronto rebounded to sneak out the set.
“We have to start capitalizing on those close sets,” Green said. “This reminds me of three or four years ago when we finally got that first (big) win. Once this team learns the value of those wins and executing I think they’ll do a very good job.”
Toronto made sure they would not have to spend extra time on the court, jumping out to a 16-10 lead at the technical timeout and did not look back.
The loss highlighted the importance of not taking any points off.
“We have to get focused on every point. Right now we have players who daydream a little bit and all of the sudden realize they just got burnt and now they have to wake up. But getting burnt in a close score is going to hurt you really fast,” Green said.
“They know what went wrong and now they have two weeks to fix it.”
Lakehead is in action next on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 as they host McMaster.
