OAKVILLE, Ont. - With the bulk of their non-conference schedule now behind them, the Sheridan Bruins women's volleyball team (6-11, 1-1 OCAA) produced two sold performances to kick off their OCAA west campaign, but ultimately split the results beating Canadore 3-0 and falling to Nipissing by the same margin.
"I think we did a lot of really good things, we were very effective on our serve receive," head coach Patrick Krychowski said following the loss to Nipissing. "Except for a couple of plays here and there in each set, we had every opportunity to win today, all three. That might come down to some experience, but confidence was certainly high. We did an effective job defending, we dug up 10 more balls than they did. We were competing with one of the elite teams in our division, in the province and we were on equal footing."
In their first match against Canadore, the Double-Blue opened with an emphatic 25-9 win in the first set and carried that to a sweep with scores of 25-12 ad 25-16 in the ensuing sets.
Sheridan held a sizeable 48-15 advantage in total offence, with 30 kills, 16 aces and two blocks.
Melissa Cappelletti led the way with 12 points (eight kills, three aces, one blocks) while Eva Crnkovic was also in double figures with 11 points (five kills, six aces).
In their second contest of the weekend against Nipissing - a side that has medalled in each of the past seven seasons - while the Lady Bruins were closed out in three sets, it was a tight battle the whole way, with set scores of 27-25, 25-22 and 27-25.
Both sides put up 37 points of total offence - 21 kills, 11 aces and five blocks for Sheridan - while the home side dug up 45 balls on the defensive side of the net, compared to 35 for Nipissing.
Crnkovic (three kills, four aces, two blocks) and Sommer Maltby (seven kills, two aces) led the way with nine points.
The club will continue a four-game homestand to open their conference schedule when they host Niagara on November 8.
Krychowski is hoping they can capture some of the emotion out of the weekend and bring it with them.
"We need to carry that positive vibe or thought process, whatever you want to call it, into Thursday," he said. "If we compete as hard, cover as hard, we should have every opportunity to be right there."
Source: Sheridan I.T.