Another game, another win for the Humber Hawks women’s volleyball team as they defeated the Niagara Knights in three straight sets to extend their perfect 10-0 record to start the season.
Although they came into this game as the only undefeated team in the conference and only dropped two sets the entire season, they knew the fifth-seed Knights would be a tough opponent.
But that did not stop Humber’s dominance whatsoever.
Head coach Chris Wilkins spoke about the team’s mindset and game plan going into it.
Left-side hitter Cassidy Andrews, helped the team win finishing with nine kills and 10 attacks. Photo credit: Isabelle Ferrante
“We needed to exert pressure,” he said. “We needed to make them feel uncomfortable and put a lot of emphasis on that. We just wanted to stay focused no matter what the scores were. We wanted to stay at our level. And for the most part, we did that.
“Niagara is a good team and we just tried to not let them be a good team,” Wilkins said.
Humber didn’t waste any time to show the Knights just how good they were, winning the first two sets 25-12 and 25-17 with the dominance of left-side hitter Cassidy Andrews, who finished the game with nine kills and 10 attacks.
Reese Cholette, Hawks’ left-side hitter, said the recipe to success against a team like Niagara is to focus on the game plan.
“Niagara is one of the better teams in our league, but it’s always good to just play at our level and not stoop down, serve tough, pass well, do our thing, and hold each other accountable,”
Niagara hoped to come back in the third set to continue to the game, but once again, that plan was foiled hugely early on in the set by the impressive offensive and serving power of the Hawks.
The Hawks faithful watched in awe as the team earned point after point to pull together an incredible 15-0 run to start the third set. This impressive set was led by a serving masterpiece by fourth-year middle blocker Keyome Ellis, who earned three service aces and was Humber’s player of the match.
Wilkins said he was impressed by her performance.
“Fifteen-oh is tough to do. Within those 15, those were all tough serves,” he said. “I was impressed with her focus, and that’s the true reason why she was a player in the game.”
Ellis said that run gave her a needed boost after struggling with her serves since mid-October.
“This brought my confidence back,” she said. “Just being able to have the support and get my serve over and have my coaches behind me and everyone behind me just makes me feel really good because I was struggling.”
The teams’ motivations for being this successful are not just the powerful serves, sound defence, or unstoppable offence, but according to Ellis, it’s the idea of using volleyball as an escape.
“Everyone on the team resorts to this team as a way of letting go of everything,” she said.
A powerful serving performance in the third set by the Humber Hawks, including Erika Dodd, pushed the team to a 15-0 run. Photo credit: Isabelle Ferrante
“Whenever we got on the court together, we’re a family and we think, whatever is going in the world, leave that out and we translate all the good on the court so we’re able to come together be a great team, be a family and just play,” Ellis said.
The Hawks hope to close the end of the fall semester on a high note with a home game against the second-seed St. Clair Saints on Dec. 3. Although it’s going to be tough, Wilkins isn’t stressed.
“Our goal is to make sure we’re getting better every game, so whether we’re 10-0 or 2-0, we just want to be better than the last game we played,” he said.