With a well-balanced attack, the University of Toronto Varsity Blues picked up right where they left off and defeated the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 25-19) on Saturday afternoon (Feb. 14) at U of T’s Athletic Centre.

With the win, the Varsity Blues advance to next weekend’s OUA Final Four championship, which will be held at York University.

Fourth-year hitter Kristina Valjas (Toronto) opened the first set with a kill and finished it with two big shots down the middle as Toronto rallied back from an early 3-7 deficit to take the opening game 25-20.

Down 7-11, Valjas knocked down the next three balls that came her way, while teammate Heather Bansley (Waterdown, Ont.) sent an array of serves over the net that seemed to handcuff quite a few Gee-Gee returners. This critical rally put the home team up one 12-11 and they wouldn’t look back from there.
The second game went the Blues way from the onset. Up 8-4 at the first technical timeout, Toronto would widen its gap on a series on solid rallies, precise hitting, and two of their 11 aces on the day.

With a comfortable 16-9 lead at the second technical timeout, the Blues would close out the second game without much of a challenge the rest of the way. Bansley finished things off with a beautiful kill down the middle, giving her team a 25-19 win in the second set.

The third, and what would be the final set, was one of the most exciting. The early stages of the game were close fought. Down 10-11, Ottawa’s Tess Edwards (Ottawa) serving expertise was on full display, and combined with was untimely Blues errors, she was able to help give her team their first substantial lead of the day, 16-11.

This lead would last until Bansley, the OUA’s second best serving specialist (Ottawa’s Edwards was first), was on the baseline ready to serve. The arts and science student calmly stepped and rattled off 10 straight points, including three aces, to put the Blues back in front 22-16.

Third-year science major Diane Burrows (Richmond Hill, Ont.) ended another great rally with a cross-court game-winning kill that confirmed a Blues berth into the OUA semifinals February 20-21, 2009.

Valjas and Burrows each tallied 12 kills to lead the Blues, while Bansley added eight kills, a game-high 19 digs and six service aces. Michelle Wood (Toronto) also added 12 digs in the win.

Ottawa’s attack was led by Stephanie McGuinty’s (Toronto) seven kills, while Karine Gagnon (Granby, Que.) added five. Edwards had 18 assists and eight digs in the loss.

NOTE: As the Varsity Blues head coach, Kristine Drakich has never fell short of taking her team to the Final Four – this is the 20th straight season in which her teams have made the semifinals, having won the championship six times.