OAKVILLE, Ont. - With the chance to clinch a spot in the playoffs at their fingertips, the Sheridan Bruins women's volleyball team (15-16-1, 7-9 OCAA) came up just short, falling in five sets to Niagara.
"We've talked a lot about consistency lately and our performance was anything but consistent tonight," head coach Patrick Krychowski said. "We rebounded from a disastrous third set but allowed Niagara to take command of the final set and couldn't climb back."
In the opening set, the double-blue came out motivated and - spurred by three early aces - jumped out to an early 7-2 lead.
It proved to be a set of runs though, with Niagara reeling off the next eight points. With the score tied at 19, the Lady Bruins upped their play and scored six of the final seven points to take the opener 25-20.
The second set proved to have a similar narrative to the first, but in reverse order.
This time it was Niagara taking the early lead (7-5) with Sheridan climbing back on more than one occasion.
With Niagara leading 24-19, the Lady Bruins pulled to within one, but couldn't sustain their run and dropped the set 25-23.
The third set was all Niagara, as the home side scored only once on their own serve and dropped the stanza 25-6.
With their backs now against the wall, the Lady Bruins responded with another quick start - getting up 5-2 early - and using the momentum from a tremendous full-team defensive effort to win the set 25-21.
In the final set, Sheridan spotted Niagara with a 7-2 lead and did not score a single point on their serve until they were already down 13-8.
They battled to pull within three, but Niagara was ultimately able to sideout and win the match.
Melissa Cappelletti had a match-high 12 points (eight kills, one ace, three blocks) while Hannah Hubicki (four kills, six aces) was also in double figures.
The club travels to Humber on February 10 and then closes out the regular season at home on February 15.
Blue notes: Cappelletti now has 206 points on the season - which breaks the single season team record - and 397 in her career, moving her to the top of Sheridan's all-time scoring list. Hubicki's 43 aces on the season is also a single season team record.
Source: Sheridan I.T.