The Windsor Lancer men’s volleyball team lost their opening quarter-final match at the 2023 U SPORTS Championships in Hamilton after being defeated by the RSEQ champion Sherbrooke Vert & Or 3-0 (17-25, 17-25, and 20-25).
The Lancers will now move to the consolation side of the bracket and will play in the consolation semi-final on Saturday against Toronto.
Veteran standout libero Steven Abrams was named the Mikasa Player of The Match with 8 digs and 2 assists in the disappointing loss to the champions out of Québec.
The Lancers could not seem to find a formula to stop Sherbrooke’s right side hitter Yoan David who had a whopping 16 kills in propelling his team to victory over the OUA silver medalists and helping to advance to the U SPORTS semi-finals against the Alberta Golden Bears.
GAME FLOW
The first set saw the Lancers run into trouble at the net when Sherbrooke’s offensive flow was adamantly persistent throughout in ensuring their top hitter David was able to produce maximum offensive production to widen the score gap throughout.
The blue and gold struggled to keep up the tempo with the green and gold as they attempted to switch up their formation with a setter swap that brought second-year Markus Law-Heese in for fifth-year veteran Anthony DeGirolamo to try and get something generated.
However ultimately the team rocking the green on St. Patrick’s Day was able to use their established shamrock energy to their advantage and close out the first set with a 25-17 win and 1-0 lead in the match.
The second set began close with both sides exchanging points making the match up look more levelled which was anticipated heading into this 4th vs 5th ranked team contest. Although on paper they made have been even, the champions of Québec did not hesitate to again turn up the heat in their play breaking away at the midway point of the set and running away with a large double digit 10-point lead.
Windsor tried everything to shake things up with multiple subs coming in off the bench to try and find some sort of spark to bring them back into the second set but in the end the Vert & Or would emulate their first set with a 25-17 second set victory to go up 2-0.
The third set saw Windsor start off in a bit of a hole but approaching the midway mark they were able to climb out of the deficit hole on the scoreboard with some newfound hope and momentous energy that allowed them to generate momentum needed going forward deeper in the set.
The blue and gold rode the wave for a while created by a pair of Jouan’s instrumental kills but were met with more equalized efforts from Sherbrooke who again channelled their sets to the offside for David to do more damage against the Windsor defense.
A nail-biting late frame of the third ended up being evaporated with a disapproved of service error by the Lancers which seemed to rock the mood of the team down the stretch. In the end, the Vert & Or would be too much for the Lancers as they fell 25-20 in the third and were swept 3-0 in the match to the RSEQ champions formally eliminating their chance at going for a national’s medal or title this year.
UP NEXT
The Lancer season is not over just yet as they are right back in action again on Saturday afternoon at 1:00pm where they will face the Toronto Varsity Blues in the first consolation semi-final game at the Burridge Gymnasium at McMaster in Hamilton.
The Varsity Blues and Lancers have met on multiple occasions this season with consistently close scores throughout in each meeting this year including in their most recent outing which was during the OUA semi-finals back on March 4th at the Toldo Lancer Centre where the Lancers formally punched their ticket to compete at this event with their 3-1 victory over the Blues.
Since then, the Blues have had to earn their way in alternative fashion capturing the OUA bronze medal which earned them the final spot in the nationals tournament at McMaster University.
The Blues lost their opening match 3-1 to the Canada West champion and tournament favourite Alberta Golden Bears on Friday afternoon in Hamilton.
Fans can tune into the live stream being broadcasted on the CBC Sports YouTube page on Saturday afternoon with the first serve expected to be tossed up at 1:00pm EST.
Lancer Family be sure to also follow our social media pages including Twitter and Instagram for live in game updates as well before and during the match.
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