THUNDER BAY – If one judged the Lakehead Thunderwolves by their place in the standings, it would be pretty easy to dismiss the women’s volleyball team.
Mired in last place and winners of just three matches in 16 outings, the Thunderwolves have struggled to find their groove throughout the 2016-17 campaign.
But while the losses continue to pile up, including Saturday’s straight-set defeat at the hands of the visiting Guelph Gryphons, their confidence remains high.
Just ask first-year outside hitter Cecile Tshibungu.
The Scarborough, Ont. native said while it’s frustrating being on the losing end of most matches, the team’s nowhere near as bad as the record might indicate.
“I believe every step, every game we play, we’re improving,” Tshibungu said.
“We’re not far from being the best team. I believe we practice harder than every single team.”
Finding consistency is what will propel the Thunderwolves to the next level. It’s been missing so far this season.
“We need to work more on our serving. And every time we attack we need to go for the kill, not just an easy ball. We are great in passing, but everything overall needs help. We’re working on it,” she said, after her team fell struggled to compete for a full set against the Gryphons, losing 17-25, 22-25 and 15-25, a night after dropping three of four sets to the same Guelph squad.
Fellow hitter Leah Mousseau, who led LU with six kills and six digs, said the effort is always there, even if the results aren’t.
“Yesterday we came out a lot more physical. Today we made a lot more errors and our energy was a little slow,” said the Ottawa product.
“Overall we did a good job though. Our blocking was a little better yesterday. We had a hard time reading and moving and playing defence today. I think passing was there. We got in too many runs on offence and in the end I think we couldn’t execute up front.”
The Wolves were competitive in all three sets – to a point.
Guelph jumped in front 16-10 in the first and were on the verge of winning the set when LU rolled off three straight to cut the gap to eight.
But it was too little too late.
Lakehead kept the second set close to the end, trailing 24-22 before the Gryphons put it away. Guelph (9-5) raced out to a 5-0 lead in the third and final match, but the Thundrwolves clawed back and trailed 12-11 before their opponent score four straight cruising the rest of the way to a weekend sweep.
Maddie Dedecker and Victoria Goleblowski led Guelph with 10 kills, each adding eight digs to their resumes.
