Friday, January 7 vs. Guelph
Guelph 3, Waterloo 0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-13)

The Waterloo Warriors opened the second half of their season with a straight set loss to the Guelph Gryphons on Friday night at the PAC gym.

With the loss the Warriors dropped to 3-5 on the season and sit six points out of the fourth and final playoff spot.

The black and gold got off to a fast start taking an early 6-2 lead in the first set before Guelph regrouped to take the lead 8-6 at the first technical timeout. The rest of the first set was a back and forth battle with the Gryphons maintaining a 2 point lead. At 22-21, Guelph pulled away to take the first set 25-21. 

Set two featured a better start for the Gryphons but they had trouble maintaining focus as they built up leads and then let Waterloo back into the set numerous times. Guelph eventually secured a 25-23 second set win. 

The Gryphons again built an early lead in the third set at 9-2, but Waterloo battled hard in the middle section of the game including one incredible rally of nearly a minute that enabled Waterloo to close the gap to 11-7. However, after a timeout to catch their breath, Guelph took control again increasing their lead to 18-10 and were able to close out the match with a 25-13 victory. 

Guelph had a well balanced attack led by Kylen Van Osch with 11 points (9 kills, 2 blocks) followed by Claire Sandor (10 kills) and Brooke Lloyd (9 kills, 1 block) with 10 each. 

For the Warriors a pair of outside hitters, Joanna Meltzer (Georgetown/) and Laura Klein (Kitchener/) led the way with 10 kills and two blocks each.  Setter Kayla Ng (London/) had 26 assists in the loss while libero Katie Spack (Ottawa/) had 19 digs.

The Warriors hope to avenge the straight set loss on Saturday as they host McMaster Marauders. 

Saturday, January 8 vs. McMaster
McMaster 3, Waterloo 0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-21)

The Warriors fell to 3-6 on the season losing in straight sets to the McMaster Marauders on Saturday evening in Waterloo.  Set scores were 25-21, 25-23, 25-21.  With the win, the high-flying McMaster Marauders improved to 9-1 on the season and sit tied for first with the Guelph Gryphons in the OUA west.  The Warriors remain in fifth place, eight points back of the fourth and final playoff spot in the west.

The Warriors were in tough against a very high skilled Marauder team, but showed they can compete with the top teams despite a straight set loss as they competed with McMaster in each set.

Sarah Kiernan led the Marauder offense with 12 kills. Kailee Stock also added double figure scoring with 10 points on 8 kills. Setter Amanda Weldon had 39 assists in the victory.