Box Score When the Waterloo Warriors dropped the opening set 25-21 to the Lakehead Thunderwolves, it was déjà vu for the black and gold as they appeared to be in for yet another long, tight match.
After two straight games that went five sets the Warriors were hoping for a quicker finish and they got just that after a crucial comeback in the second set, taking it 29-27. Waterloo found themselves down 24-22 and it looked as if the T-Wolves were going to cruise to the 2-0 set lead but after a few attacking errors evened the game,
Kelsey Caza (Waterloo) put away one of her three kills to give Waterloo the set.
Coach
Richard Eddy turned to his young guns in the third set and they did not disappoint. The start of the set couldn't have gone any better with Caza at the service line. The rookie middle tallied 10 straight points highlighted by four service aces to put the set out of reach for the visiting T-Wolves. Waterloo cruised to take the third set 25-7.
The fourth set would start off much tighter as Lakehead jumped out to the 10-8 lead but coach Eddy stuck with his rookies and they wouldn't disappoint as the black and gold put away nine of the next 10 points, jumping out to a 17-11 lead. The Warrior rally was triggered by nice attacks from
Alyson Colpitts (Fredericton),
Claire Mackenzie (North Vancouver) and Caza. The Warriors would maintain their advantage the rest of the way and a Mackenzie kill would hand Waterloo the set 25-17 and match 3-1.
The attack was well distributed amongst the Warrior roster with Mackenzie leading the way with her 12 kills. Colpitts added eight while
Emily Ibbotson (Cambridge) had six. Colpitts and Ibbotson teamed up for 10 blocks in the match. Caza was huge from the service line with five aces. Rookie setter
Karly Smith (Lockport) saw three sets of action and collected 23 assists in a winning effort. Defensively,
Kristen Bartmann (Uxbridge) led all players with 18 digs.
For Lakehead, it was Jennifer Casey leading the way with 12 kills while setter Vanessa Masters had 28 assists.
The Warriors are back to .500 (3-3) on the season while Lakehead has the identical record.
Waterloo will wrap up their six game home stand with games against Windsor (Friday) and Western (Saturday) next weekend at the PAC. Both games are set for 6pm.
