Program turnaround

The OUA volleyball playoffs are on the horizon and when that ship arrives in port the Lakehead Thunderwolves have every intention of climbing aboard.

A four-set, home-court win Saturday afternoon over the Guelph Gryphons pushed them another step in that direction.

The Wolves, winners of three straight, improved to 6-8 on the season, the most wins they’ve accumulated since 2005-06, coincidentally the last time they went to the post-season.

Fourth-year attacker Jorie Daymond said the turnaround of the program has been a myriad of emotions for the veterans on the team.
“It’s a relief, almost,” she said. “We win and it feels like we should have been doing this all along. We don’t know why we haven’t been doing it. It’s something really to appreciate in our group of girls.”

Seeing the playoffs as a real possibility has been a thrilling ride, the Ottawa native added.

“We’ve never been in this position before where we have the possibility of being in the playoffs. So it’s a dream come true for some of us and we’re excited where this season is headed,” she said.

Those six wins are one fewer than the Wolves accumulated in coach Chris Green’s first three seasons at the helm.

What’s changed? Green isn’t 100 per cent positive, but he has some ideas.

“This group has learned how to play through adversity,” he said, pointing to Saturday’s up-and-down match against the 3-9 Gryphons.

“We have to keep performing. I’m really proud of this group. I’m not going to get this wrong. These guys have finally figured out the systems. We’ve finally got the right bodies here and we’ve finally got the people learning the system and developing within the system. They’ve got it now.”

Against the Gryphons the Thunderwolves made easy work of the opening set, racing out to a 7-0 lead, adding another 6-0 run down the stretch and closed it out on a Vanessa Chorkaway block to earn the 25-10 win.

The second set, however, wasn’t as fruitful.

This time it was Guelph taking the early advantage and keeping it en route to a 25-15 win, evening the match.

The Gryphons looked like they were set to do more of the same in the third, scoring the first five points. But down 9-4 LU began its comeback, ultimately tying it 11-11 on a big Sarah Hudson smash. They pulled away from there to win 25-15.

The fourth set was a back-and-forth affair, with 10 ties and 11 lead changes, Lakehead fighting most of the early going to get back on even ground. They took their first two-point lead at 17-15, pushed their margin to four, then rode a couple big scoring shots by Daymond and Chorkaway to triumph.

“The win means a lot,” Chorkaway said. “The second set, I don’t really know what happened. I think we were maybe riding a bit of confidence and expecting them to hand the match to us and that’s never a good thing.

“We definitely had to buckle down in the third set and figure things out.”

Chorkaway, who hinted she won’t be back for a fifth season, says this is the best the team has played in her four seasons.

“It’s very exciting time for us. It’s great to have the crowd support, which is great, but we’re really coming together as a team and it’s really nice in the second half to have that riding into playoffs.”

Lakehead takes next weekend off and travels to Brock the following weekend.