The Waterloo women's volleyball team improved to 5-1 at home with a 3-1 (24-26, 27-25, 25-13, 25-21) set victory over the Guelph Gryphons on Friday night in front of a boisterous Waterloo home crowd at the PAC.  

Middle Kristen Sheffield (North Bay/) brought here 'A' game leading all players with 15 kills, several at key moments of the game.  Sheffield also added three service aces, three blocks and eight digs in the Warrior win.

In the early going it was all Gryphons as they jumped out to a 15-8 first set lead but the Warriors would claw their way back midway through the set with six straight points off of Kayla Ng (London/)'s serve.  The two squads would battle back and forth for the remainder of the set before outside hitter Devon Jones (Rockwood, Ont.) would put away one of her eight kills in the match to give Guelph the 26-24 first set win.

The Gryphons would carry their momentum into the second set thanks to some shifty play by Brooke Lloyd (Whitby, Ont.) who put away several kills to give her team an early set advantage.  Guelph would take control of the second set off some sloppy Warrior play and take a 22-17 lead but a timeout by coach Gaby Jobst gave the Warriors new life. 

Laura Klein (Kitchener/) would take three straight points on her serve to get Waterloo right back in the set and following several key blocks by Danielle Kamp and Sheffield the score would be notched at 25's.  Sheffield and Oksana Kozak (Mississauga/) would go back to back with big kills to give Waterloo the 27-25 second set win.

With the momentum in their favour, Waterloo would walk all over Guelph in the third set jumping out to a 15-3 lead.  Sheffield continued her stellar match with two straight aces late in the set and Waterloo would cruise to the 25-13 set win.

The fourth and final set would see the Gryphons fighting to regain their attack and would take an early 7-5 lead but Kozak would show off her serving skills, tallying six straight points to give her squad an 11-7 lead. 

Guelph would shift the momentum back in their favour thanks to the attack by Lloyd and Jones but Waterloo was able to regain the advantage at the net and walk away with the set 25-21 and game 3-1.

Contributing to the Warrior attack was Danielle Kamps (Vineland Station/) with 13 kills.  Kamps was a force all game long at the net with seven blocks in the match.  Laura Klein (Kitchener/) added 10 kills and three service aces.  Defensively Kozak was stellar with 26 digs while libero Katie Spack (Ottawa/) dug the ball 18 times.  Setter Kayla Ng (London/) had 40 assists in the win.

As a team the Warriors served lights out with a total of 17 service aces compared to just four for the Gryphons.

Leading the charge for the Gryphons was Lloyd who had 13 kills and 16 digs in the match.  Jones added eight kills while Taylor Crown (Victoria Harbour, B.C.) and Erinn Bickle (Whitby, Ont.) each had seven.    Setter Katelyn Larson had 35 assists in the loss.

Waterloo will enjoy the rest of the week off before returning to action next Friday as they battle the York Lions at the PAC.  Game time is scheduled for 6pm.