Flames extinguished by Bears

After winning the first set April 23, [url=http://www.ufacademy.org/v5/]Ursula Franklin Academy’s[/url] co-ed volleyball team dropped the next three sets and saw their record fall to 1-3.

The team got off to a quick start, but as the game went on [url=http://bloorci.vze.com/]Bloor Collegiate Institute[/url] took control of the game and won three sets to one.

The Bloor West Village denizens are in the midst of a losing streak, and head coach Heather Strupat is trying to get the squad out of the skid.

“I think we have to have more consistency in our passing,” she said. “We also need to be confident in our hitting and our ability to win big points.”

Despite the loss Strupat thought it was a winnable game.

“The Bloor game got away from us, I think we could have won that, but we let up a little bit,” she said.

One of the challenges Strupat has is combining the two different styles of games the boys and girls have. Still it’s a challenge she embraces.

“It’s just a different experience where they play different roles than they are used to,” she said. “I have really enjoyed coaching it the last five or six years.”

Establishing team chemistry right off the bat is another issue.

“You don’t have a lot of time to work on fundamentals and basically you are just working on team strategy because it is a different set-up than they are used to,” Strupat said.

With only a few games left in the season, the Flames need to end their losing streak to reach a target they set as a team at the start of the season.

“Our goal when we started this season was to be around .500, which is okay,” Strupat said. “We would obviously like to do better, but that is our goal and we have to capitalize on all of the opportunities that come our way the rest of the season.”