One of the best seasons in program history came to an unfortunate but unforgettable end as Brock’s women’s volleyball team lost to the Acadia Axewomen on March 15th. Despite losing the first two sets to put them behind the eight ball early, the Badgers battled back to win sets three and four before ultimately losing in the playoff set.
Brock was a little slow to start, giving Acadia an opportunity that they pounced on. The Axewomen kicked the game off with a 6-2 run, with all of their points coming off assists from second-team All-Canadian setter Charlie Dean. Despite the early setback, the Badgers responded with a 7-2 run of their own, taking a 9-8 lead. With more scoring runs down the stretch, Brock pushed their lead to three, an advantage they maintained throughout most of the set.
However, a missed serve by Emily Foest up 20-17 gave Acadia an opening, sparking a four-point run that put them back in the driver’s seat, now up 20-21. As the Badgers and Axewomen traded points, a powerful kill from Gigi Markotic seemed as though it might shift the momentum in Brock’s favour, now facing match point. However, they would find no such luck as Acadia held on, winning set one 23-25.
While set two was even closer than the first, the Axewomen continued to show a fearsome presence on the defensive side of the net, something the Badgers struggled to work around.
Brock opened with a 4-2 lead but soon surrendered it on a 10-5 run, falling behind 9-12. Just as quickly however they turned it around, going on a 7-1 run to restore their two-point lead, up 16-13. After pushing that lead further to 19-15, Brock seemed poised to take over the set.
It would not last.
Acadia came out with three straight points, trimming their deficit to only one. From there, the Axewomen repeatedly forced Badger side-outs, keeping the score within reach before eventually tying the game at 24. Brock had two chances to close out the set, but again Acadia forced two consecutive side-outs before scoring three straight, winning set two 26-28.
Despite facing elimination after two sets, the Badgers showed no signs of feeling the pressure. In fact, it was the Axewomen who seemed to have the jitters walking into set three.
Brock stormed out to a 10-1 run to open the set, powered by four kills from Sadie Dick as well as three blocks and a kill from Laurin Ainsworth. Acadia had no answers for Brock the rest of the way either. While the Axewomen had been the dominant blocking side in the first half, the tide had begun to shift in Brock’s favour.
Not only were the Badgers getting up to challenge Acadia at the net more aggressively, but they were also doing an excellent job of manipulating the Axewomen’s block attempts, putting lots of balls off their opponent’s hands and forcing errors. The Badgers capped off a gutsy third set with a 7-4 run, winning by a convincing 25-15.
Acadia mostly shook off whatever was holding them back in set three and jumped out to a 3-5 lead in the fourth, led by two blocks from middle Erica Fisher. As Brock added three straight points to jump ahead 6-5, they set the table for a return to the tightly fought, white-knuckled sets we’d seen in one and two.
As the set progressed, Brock continued to force one-point side outs while going on short two-point runs, slowly building their lead. Up 13-10, Brock started to go on longer runs to grow their advantage. First, a four-point run, punctuated by back-to-back aces from Madison Chimienti, pushed Brock to a 17-11 lead. After giving up two straight points, a kill from Ainsworth and two Axewoman errors allowed the Badgers to follow that up with a three-point run, making them the first side to get over the 20-point hump.
Though Acadia threatened to get back into the game with a three-point run of their own, an error and two more kills from Ainsworth gave the Badgers a set-point opportunity and, off a block by Dick, made good on their chance, winning 25-19 and forcing a playoff set.
Going into the fifth set, all the momentum seemed to be at the Badgers’ backs. Brock grabbed the first point of the set, but the lead would prove a tough one to maintain. The Badgers and Axewomen traded short runs, seeing the lead change hands five times before the set reached its halfway point. On the fifth change, Brock went on a three-point run to go up 7-5, giving them their largest lead of the set and forcing Acadia to take a timeout.
The Axewomen emerged from the pause with renewed energy, immediately going on a five-point run to claim a five-point lead. The Badgers, playing for their lives and only five points shy of elimination, wouldn’t be counted out and countered with a three-point run to tie the score at 10.
From there, Brock’s magic seemed to run out. Chimienti went up hard to the net force Acadia’s Erica Fisher to commit an error but injured herself on the play. After flubbing the serve, she limped to the sideline where she spent the rest of the match.
Afterwards, two questionable calls—one for a net violation and a dubious decision at the right sideline—put the Badgers behind late. Acadia closed the match out with two kills, winning the final set 12-15 and the match 3-2.
The loss will certainly be a tough pill to swallow for Brock. Though they dropped the first two sets, both were by very slim margins and the Badgers looked like the superior team for much of the game, outscoring Acadia 86-69 overall as well as finishing with 20 more kills.
While all Brock hitters reached double-digit kills, Dick was leaned on heavily by the Badgers’ offence, leading the match with 17 kills and only five errors on a massive 51 attempts. Foest and Chimienti also had a high-volume workload with each having 44 attempts, contributing 14 kills with 10 errors and 10 kills with nine errors respectively.
Continuing her run as one of the most efficient hitters in the country, Markotic also added 12 kills on 27 attempts without committing a single error. In addition to tying Chimienti for the team lead in blocks with three, Ainsworth also had a strong outing, chipping in 11 kills on 22 attempts.
Sara Rohr and Aleiah Torres also led the match in their respective categories. Recently anointed All-Canadian first-teamer Rohr came out on top in a matchup between two of the country’s top setters, finishing with 56 assists. Torres’ 26 digs led all players in the five-set match.
While Brock played again on March 16th in a consolation match against McMaster, they could be forgiven for not having given it their all after the heartbreaking loss. In what proved to be a short game, Brock lost 0-3 to McMaster, ending their season on a somewhat sour note.
After such a successful season full of personal achievements and massive team victories, this weekend was certainly a disappointing end to the Badgers’ year. However, considering all they accomplished this year, fans have plenty to be thankful for and lots to look forward to next season.
