March 28, 2024

BY ETHAN KOMPF

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Conestoga’s varsity men’s volleyball team suffered a disappointing loss to Redeemer University College on Jan. 12, putting an end to a three-game winning streak and leaving their record at three wins and eight losses this season. The Condors didn’t have a win until Nov. 21, but carried that to a three-game streak between Nov. 21 and Nov. 29. The team credited those wins to scheduling and stronger group cohesion.

“To start the season we played very good volleyball teams, some of the best in Canada,” said Josh Huisman, a Conestoga player.” Our last three games were against the bottom three teams in our conference, so they were must wins and we got the job done. We know we aren’t going to beat the best, but our goal is to steal games and slowly build toward a great team.”

“We finally started putting things together near the end of the semester,” said Kyle Chaffe, another Conestoga player.

A decent sized crowd showed up to watch the Condors take on the Royals (who were 7-3 at the time) and although the fans were vocal, the home-crowd advantage was not enough to tip the scale.

Conestoga started its first set off with an even back and forth with Redeemer, but began to trail, and eventually lost the game 25-19. Despite this, the Condors’ morale seemed to stay high.

The second game was worse for Conestoga, as they lost it 25-15. Between the second and third games, it was clear that Conestoga’s energy was lagging, while Redeemer’s stayed high. When the score was 18-24 for Redeemer, which was only one point away from winning, Conestoga rallied, scoring a consecutive four points. Unfortunately that streak came to an end and the Royals took the third game 25-22.

The Royals had an advantage in the match, as they had previously played on Jan. 9, whereas Conestoga had not played since Nov. 29.

“(The break) definitely (affected our play),” said Huisman. “During the break you don’t get as many touches and when you get back you need to shake off a little rust and get back into the swing of things.”

Chaffe agreed, but also said the break had the advantage of allowing players to get back into shape and heal any injuries that they had sustained. Both Huisman and Chaffe said the team is working on improving pressure during their serves and that the team is developing well and the future looks bright for the Condors.

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