Livingston leads Gaels past Thunderwolves

Women’s volleyball team takes down Lakehead 3-1

Queen's women's volleyball faces their next text on Saturday and Sunday.
Image supplied by: Journal File Photo
Queen's women's volleyball team needs to win their next two games against York and Nipissing at home.

At a critical point in the season, the women’s volleyball team is in need of strong performances more than ever. On Sunday, they got what they were looking for.

Led by the strong attack of Caroline Livingston, the third-seeded Gaels swiftly took down the Lakehead Thunderwolves 3-1 in sets. With four games remaining and the OUA East standings as tight as ever, the game was an important prelude to the coming weeks as the Gaels get set for a pair of must win games.

“We came out with a good consistent fight today with a couple of blips here and there where the focus just got distracted slightly, but really resilient for them to come back from those moments,” Head Coach Michael Ling said after the match.

The Gaels started the first set from behind, falling 8-3 early, but were able to level the first set midway through. However, bursts of momentum for Queen’s were commonly followed by costly errors, eventually dropping the first set 25-23.

The second set was a breeze for the Gaels, winning by an 11-point margin but in the third Lakehead pushed back late in the set to bring it to 24-24. After a Lakehead fault and Victoria Wensley kill, the Gaels took the set 26-24. The fourth set was smoother sailing, as Queen’s closed it out by a score of 25-15.

Livingston led the Gaels with 18 kills while Isabelle Korchinski followed close behind with 12 of her own.

The win’s importance mattered not only in the standings, but also for the mentality of the team going into next week, where the Gaels will be taking on Nipissing and York — the two teams they’re tied with for third place in the OUA East division. Queen’s dropped their previous meetings with both teams early in the season in two, close five-set matches.

“It’s definitely about those two teams that are, I’ll say, directly in front of us,” Coach Ling said in response to the team’s mentality going into next weekend. “We need to consider ourselves not underdogs but we’re right in that competitive group where they’re going to be important for us to beat.”

With a win for one team and a loss for another, a team’s season could be over in a blink of an eye. That’s why at this point, the Gaels are looking to stay healthy as they begin their push for the playoffs.

“I think it’s about taking care of the bodies right now. Nothing will change in training, we’ll still go with a typical week of training,” Ling said.

Ling made a point of saying that the Gaels aren’t intimidated by the competition, “I think that they’re two very good teams that are in the same position that we’re in, they’re just fighting for a playoff position and they’re going to come out hard, and we have to respond to that.”

In both games Queen’s will have home court advantage, as they play York on Saturday and Nipissing on Sunday.

Tags

Caroline Livingston, Lakehead Thunderwolves, Women's Volleyball

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