The Windsor Lancer men’s volleyball team were able to sweep the visiting Guelph Gryphons 3-0 (25-12, 25-20, 25-23) on Friday night at the Toldo Lancer Centre.
The victory improved the Lancers record to 10-4 in the standings now moving them up to currently third seed overall in the OUA standings.
STATS Luca Nastase had 10 kills, 2 service aces, and 5 digs in the win leading the charge for the Lancers in this outing.
Zach Albert had another all-around great performance adding 5 kills, 3 service aces, 6 digs, and 1 assist before leaving the game early in the third set due to injury.
Both Lancer middles also contributed greatly with Julien Jouan scoring on 5 kills and 1 service ace while Chase Bridges-Hunter had a monstrous presence up at the net recording game high of 6 blocks in helping to secure the victory over the Gryphons.
Guelph was led by Arjun Selhi who had 7 kills in the sweeping loss.
GAME FLOW
In the first set, the Lancers established an intimidating presence at home by coming out the gate with a controlled lead that only continued to grow progressing into the midway mark of the set. The game slipped away from the Gryphons early and was never retrieved as the Lancers cruised to a 25-12 victory off of solid consistent play.
Up 1-0, the Lancers knew they had to continue fighting hard to avoid playing any extra sets and they were able to set the tone early once again in the second set with Albert on the service line picking up 2 of his 3 aces to jump out to a 6-0 start. The Gryphons found themselves overwhelmed by the Lancers as the set wore on but were able to stop the bleeding later in the set when they reduced their deficit down to single digits. The blue and gold however unfazed were able to close out and not forfeit their lead by coasting to a 25-20 second set win to go up 2-0 in the match.
The third set saw tragedy and triumph for the resilient Lancers who were tested early on by the determined Gryphon squad trying to stave off being swept during their first of two meetings this weekend in Windsor. They were able to generate enough momentum to break open a lead on their side and force the Lancers to elevate their play. The Lancers rose to the occasion and saw themselves having to battle hard to earn a straight set victory. At 16-16 both sides seemed evenly on par with one another poised to continue playing great competitive see-saw volleyball.
However, the Lancers lost Albert due to an accidental collision injury on the Lancers side of the court at 18-17 Guelph that saw the entire team shaken. Albert would not return to action for the rest of the evening and was immediately attended to by on-site medical staff. The blue and gold had to find the courage and strength to battle back from the sudden loss on the floor to motivate themselves to try and win for their fallen brother in arms.
Noah Koskie came in as the emergency substitute and the Lancers were able to find a newfound energy off the injury timeout to knot things up again at 19-19 then the stalwart unit of camaraderie that the Lancer men’s volleyball team possess was on full display and kicked into high gear allowing them to overcome the deficit in the gym that was both on and off the scoreboard to eventually take back the set in dramatic fashion 25-23 to win the match 3-0 in front of the home crowd.
UP NEXT
The Lancers are right back in action against the Gryphons again tomorrow afternoon at 4:00pm. Tickets for the event can be purchased at the gate of the Toldo Lancer Centre box office or here at golancers.ca. The game will also be livestreamed on OUA.tv where you can catch the action if away from the venue.
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