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| Above: York’s Kristina Vlcek spikes the ball in a match against Waterloo. Photo by Alex Pylyshyn. |
After a long break away from the Tait McKenzie Centre, the York University Lions men’s and women’s volleyball teams will return this weekend.
They will play an Ontario University Athletics (OUA) doubleheader on Sunday against the visiting Laurier Golden Hawks, with the women beginning at 1pm and the men following at 3pm. The men will also face the Royal Military College Paladins on Saturday afternoon at 3pm.
Both teams had last weekend off from OUA competition. The women (3-2) haven’t played since Nov. 14 and have a game against the Brock Badgers in St. Catharines on Saturday evening before returning home to face the Golden Hawks. In their last match they had a three-game winning streak snapped with a hard-fought loss to the University of Toronto Varsity Blues by a 3-1 score.
The women are still third in the OUA East standings despite playing fewer games than the other teams. Their opponents, the Golden Hawks, have been a streaky team so far this year. After a loss in their season opener, they recorded three straight wins and then three straight losses to currently sit at 3-4 and in sixth place in the OUA West.
The men (1-7) are looking for their second win of the season after a string of losses, mostly on the road. Their lone victory came in the season opener against the Waterloo Warriors. They have never lost to the Paladins since RMC joined the league in 2004-05. The Paladins (0-9) have yet to win a match this season but have already won as many sets this year as they did all of last year. The Lions will face a tougher opponent on Sunday in the Golden Hawks. Laurier has won only three of eight matches this season but won both contests last weekend, including a huge upset of the previously undefeated and No. 1-nationally ranked McMaster Marauders.
Also on the home schedule is a men’s hockey game against the Waterloo Warriors on Thursday evening at 7pm at Canlan Ice Sports. The Lions have gone 6-3-1 in their last 10 games and upset the Warriors the last time they met two weeks ago, defeating the No. 7-ranked Waterloo squad 3-1 on home ice.
The last OUA championship of the fall season takes place this weekend at McMaster with the water polo teams. The Lions men’s team qualified for the four-team event after a 4-6 record in the regular season put them fourth in the OUA standings. They will face the undefeated Varsity Blues in the semifinals, and either the host Marauders or Carleton Ravens for the chance to win a medal the following day.
Submitted by Alyson Fisher, Sport York sport & recreation information officer