According to outside hitter and 2022-23 U SPORTS First Team All-Canadian Erik Siksna, Men’s Volleyball experienced a “manual reset” just in time for the 2023-24 season.
As new seasons typically do, this one started with a host of changes for the Gaels. After saying goodbye to six players from last year’s roster, the team welcomed six new ones—five rookies and one transfer.
New libero Lhexen Rabit transferred to Queen’s to pursue graduate studies after playing his undergrad at Toronto Metropolitan University. While at TMU, Rabit received the 2023 TMU Gold ‘B’ award which recognized an outstanding career with the program and was named to the 2022 OUA East First-team All-star team.
Rabit is extremely excited to join the Queen’s program this season and has high hopes for hardware in the new year.
“I already knew that we were going to be a good team but what’s really exciting is we have a high chance of winning this year,” he said.
Rabit starts this season with many previous years of experience in the OUA and with that, many games as a Queen’s opponent. This year, he’s excited to sport his new Tricolour uniform.
“Coming from playing against Queen’s, I’ve always noticed how many supporters they have and every time I’ve played here it was kind of intimidating playing against them just because of how many fans they have,” he said. “It helps us but it’s pretty intimidating against other teams.”
As for the rest of the new recruits, they have also found their place and community within the team. Veteran middle Dax Tompkins spoke highly of the new class and believes they are a perfect fit with the current cast of players.
“To be honest, our rookie class is awesome,” he said.
“They fit in super well culturally. They are the most well-adjusted rookie class so far. It’s only a month into this season and they are already a part of our team. They don’t seem like rookies at all.”
New players are not the only new faces this year—Queen’s also hired a new assistant coach, Josh Gaudet, in May. Gaudet comes from many provincial and national successes out West and has already made huge contributions here at Queen’s.
“He has been really impactful and good,” Tompkins said. “I think that’s exciting, and I think our new team dynamic and team culture is different than the years that we’ve been here. It’s in a really good place.”
Team culture and dynamic is on the minds of each player this season. Last season, the team really started to gel in January—after spending a weekend travelling for a tournament—and that chemistry produced exciting results including a seven-game win streak. This season, the team feels confident the gelling has already begun.
“We’ve definitely done a lot of team activities throughout the summer and early in the year, but I think the biggest thing is kind of having a fresh start. Bringing in a new assistant coach is big for that, and also having that turnover in players. I think that kind of gave us a manual reset where we kind of had to start fresh a bit,” Erik Siksna said. “I think we kind of flushed out all the bad things that happened last year.”
So far, the Gaels have responded perfectly to last season’s disappointing end by finding preseason success.
Early in October, the Gaels hosted the Smola Cup and battled against some of the top teams in the country. They took the Alberta Golden Bears, who placed fourth in the nation last year, to five thrilling sets and also beat Trinity Western University, the defending national champions, on home court.
“If you look at our preseason schedule, it’s been arguably our toughest games all year We’ve been playing some true national contenders and defending national champions and that’s all just been in preparation for the season so that we can evaluate where we are at,” Siksna said.
Although proud of their performances thus far, the Gaels are also more aware of what they need to focus on for the rest of the season.
“Every team is tough from top to bottom, and I think even in these tougher matches—even the ones we won—I think a lot of things were exposed for us in terms of how we played,” Siksna added. “So even though we may have pulled some of those games out we still know we have a ton to work on if we are going to be successful in the OUA.”
As the Gaels prepare for the OUA and regular season, however, they will also have a spot in nationals. This year, Queen’s will host the Men’s Volleyball National Championship at the ARC, and the team is using that hype to motivate their play.
“No doubt the biggest thing that is exciting about this season is hosting the national championship,” Siksna said.
“If you look at last year, we had an amazing home record and maybe struggled a bit on the road, so I think that just goes to show how much impact the fans have. Queen’s is known for having a great fan atmosphere and we see that will every regular season game, we can only imagine what that’s going to be like come nationals.”
As the Gaels prepare for their regular season—and to host nationals—they aren’t scared by all the change this season brings. Instead, they are motivated by the new faces and environment, and are as determined as ever to turn this fresh start into fresh results.
Their first game will be at RMC on Nov. 3 with their home opener soon after against Trent on Nov. 10.
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