THUNDER BAY -- The Lakehead Thunderwolves are so close but yet so far away from their first victory of the season.
For the second straight match Lakehead fell in four sets (14-25, 17-25, 25-23, 8-25) to the Guelph Gryphons in Ontario university regular season volleyball at the Thunderdome Sunday afternoon.
The loss leaves Lakehead winless in their first five games to start the regular season.
“It’s any game now,” Kailan Robinson said. “There are so many little things that we have to do to get a win. We’re there, we’re just not getting the results.”
The Thunderwolves were their own worst enemies, committing 34 errors compared to just. 15 for the Gryphons.
Robinson led the attack for Lakehead, finishing with 18 of the squad’s 38 total kills.
Lakehead head coach Chris Green was disappointed with his team’s shot selection and execution, which led to an unacceptable number of miscues.
He said Robinson, a second-year left side, was the only hitter to take exploit a defensive weakness and use it to her advantage.
“That’s part of us learning who our weapons are and how to use them. What she did was execute a simple plan. She knew she could go high over top the small blockers, which with Guelph you have to do,” he said.
“When you look at the other hitters who didn’t listen they’re getting blocked by hitting cross court against the big blocker rather than hitting line.”
The Thunderwolves briefly battled from a shaky opening two sets, taking the third to force a fourth and show signs of life.
That brief resilience was quickly snuffed out as Guelph took the first four points of the set, prompting Green to call a timeout. That didn’t seem to have much impact as Guelph quickly went up 7-0.
The impact of the poor start quickly took the wind out of their sails.
“It showed with our first four passes. That brought us down right there. You have to execute the first (few) points,” Robinson said.
Lakehead showed glimpses of promise in the third, playing easily their smoothest set of the day, committing only five errors.
Robinson created set point with a hit that painted the line and closed it out by hammering a kill off the block and out of bounds.
However, it wasn’t enough to make up for an early hole.
The Thunderwolves stayed close for much of the first set, hitting the technical timeout only down 12-16. Errors quickly became abundant as Guelph took nine of the final 11 points in the set to draw first blood.
That lead was doubled after the second set, where the erratic and risky offence continued to exact a toll.
Lakehead committed 19 hitting errors over the course of the first two sets.
That start, especially coming after a game where Lakehead built momentum late, was particularly disturbing to the coach.
It’s time for the players to start correcting mistakes, he said.
“The same things that have been hurting us, inconsistent play, keep showing up,” Green said. “It’s frustrating but at some point they have to hold themselves accountable.”
He took a step in sending that message this weekend, putting one of the biggest pieces of the team’s offence on the sidelines for a significant portion of the two games.
Senior left side hitter Jennifer Casey, who is being looked upon as one of the team’s leaders, was benched late in Saturday’s loss and did not see the court until about halfway through the second set on Sunday.
“When Jen concentrates and is efficient she is one of the best hitters in the OUA. If she doesn’t then she is one of the most average,” Green said.
“She has people blocking her that have no business blocking her. That’s a problem. You can’t have a hitter who can hit so high and so hard make those errors.”
Lakehead now hits the road for five straight, starting with a three-match series next weekend against Windsor, Western and Brock.
