The Waterloo Warriors women’s volleyball team had an impressive home opener in which they blanked the Royal Military College Paladins 3–0 on Saturday, Oct. 18.
The Warriors drew first blood with an attack error from the Paladins. The Warriors then went up by five unanswered points, establishing their dominance in the court. The Paladins responded with a single point, but they were ineffective in containing the Warriors powerful and controlled offensive and gave up another five points, making it 10–1 in favour of Waterloo.
For the rest of the first set the Warriors continued to outplay and dominate the Paladins and closed the first set 25–9.
During the second set, Waterloo took the first point, but RMC looked determined to keep the Warriors under control. They managed to do so, making the first minutes of play of the second set an exchange of points between both teams. But soon after, the Warriors regained control of the match and took advantage of the attack and defining errors of the Paladins and worked a lead of six points, forcing the Paladin’s coach to call for a time out.
Third-year Shannon Lodoen was stellar in boosting the Warriors to an eight point lead, making it 24–13 for the Warriors. Fourth-year Natasha Spalding secured the second set for Waterloo with a mighty kill, making it 25–13.
During the third set, the roles reversed as the Paladins took a lead of four points in the beginning of the set. The Warriors seemed to have difficulties adjusting to the Paladins’ pace in the third set. After a heated exchange of points between the two squads, the Warriors seemed to find their pace back and started catching up to the Paladins. Loeden tied the set 6–6 and then proceeded to give the Warriors a two-point lead.
For the last half of the third set, RMC managed to stack a lead of five points and it seemed as if they were gonna take the set and force the game to a fourth and final set, but second-year setter Emily Needles tied the game 21–21, giving the Warriors some breathing room for the last minutes of the final set.
The final minutes of play saw a heated exchange of points between the two teams, making it 24–24 with less than a minute to play. Spalding and Needles gave the advantage to the Warriors with a block. Spalding then secured the victory for the Warriors with a kill, closing the set 26–24.
This was the first game for the Warriors’ new head coach Richard Eddy, who seems to be doing a good job with this energized Warriors squad. The Warriors will be facing the York Lions and the Nipissing Lakers next weekend.
