2 Brandie Wilkerson, York Lions' Athlete of the Week, and OUA Feature. Photo: Patrick Eugster at yorkulions.ca

November 26

November 27

 November 28

 

The Week in Review

With Queen’s inactive all weekend, the York Lions pushed their undefeated season to 8-0 with two straight home wins against Lakehead. Somehow York did manage to lose in five sets Friday, and four sets Thursday. Lakehead dropped to 2-9, and tested the league leaders more than anticipated. Brandie Wilkerson managed to be recognized among all athletes in the OUA in their By The Numbers column:

38 – The number of points York volleyball player Brandie Wilkerson (Brampton, Ont.) recorded over two matches this weekend. The rookie standout recorded a team-high 20 kills, adding seven digs, five block assists and one ace to lead the Lions to victory on Friday.

Ottawa, sitting right behind the inactive Queen’s squad, had back-to-back games travelling west of Toronto with a chance to leapfrog into second. First, McMaster handed them a loss in four sets. The next night, Guelph swept the Ottawa squad. They drop to 5-4 and might need to be worried about the teams below them, rather than ahead.

Luckily for them, no team below them had more than two wins. Toronto got their very first win last weekend. But the Toronto Varsity Blues are the defending OUA Champions, and have a serious legacy of winning. They swept a young RMC team on Friday, and won on the road against Laurier in four sets. After going 2-0 last weekend, they move to 4-0 over the last two to end OUA games before the holiday break. Last week they weren’t even on our standings, but here’s how the East will look until January.

 

East Standings

York        8-0

Queen’s   6-1

Ottawa    5-4

Toronto    4-7

 

As said, the West Conference teams had their way with Ottawa over the weekend. McMaster and Guelph move stalemate each other, both moving to seven wins.

The other important game of the weekend was the leader of the standings, Brock, against fourth-ranked Western. The underdog came through. With emphasis. They swept Brock to drop them below McMaster on Friday with only six wins. However, Brock played again on Saturday and Sunday. They won in straight sets against a, still, winless Windsor team, followed by beating a now 2-9 Lakehead squad (Lakehead now 0-3 for the weekend). Brock leads the standings again, but they have played 12 games, as opposed to McMaster’s 8. Their time atop the standings is likely brief.

Western beating Brock keeps them on pace with McMaster and Guelph. It looks like those three teams will be the ones to watch.

 

West Standings

Brock       8-4

McMaster  7-1

Guelph     7-2

Western    5-2

 

As always, full scores can be found in the OUA Standings section. The OUA returns from break in January.