The Windsor Lancers travelled back to Kingston for their second straight weekend trip to the limestone city this time visiting the Queen’s Gaels at the ARC.
On Friday night Queen’s earned a 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, and 34-32) victory over the Lancers that certainly did not come easy to them as the blue and gold remained competitive throughout their first tilt with tri-colour on the weekend.
Windsor’s competitiveness continued into Saturday, taking the Gaels to extra points in multiple sets, but eventually falling 3-2 (30-28, 25-22, 24-26, 24-26, 10-15).
FRIDAY Zach Albert had another huge game with 13 kills, a service ace, 2 assists and 3 digs. While Julien Jouan also had another great game in Kingston piggybacking off of his solid performance last weekend at RMC adding 7 kills in the loss. While Gustavo Siqueira defensively chipped in with 5 digs as well as a notable opening service ace to get things going on the evening.
Meanwhile, the Lancers veteran setter, Anthony DeGirolamo, had 31 assists in the tough loss to the notoriously competitive Gaels.
Queen’s was led by Erik Siksna and Zigurds Licis who each had 10 kills on the night in the winning effort for their squad. Chris Zimmerman dished out 39 assists in the impressive win over Windsor.
In the first set, both teams set the tone early and established that it was going to be a competitive game on hand as expected. Both sides traded points which yielded neither coach to call their first of two time-outs of the set until Coach Gravelle exercised his right to do so at 19-18 down one point to the Gaels. Each team up to that point found themselves going on short runs and siding out quickly before retrieving or forfeiting point possession to their counterparts. The Lancers would go on to use their second timeout at 22-19 when Queen’s started feeding of their tumultuous crowd’s energy and with that buzz, they were able to polish off the first set with a 25-20 win over the blue and gold to go up 1-0 in the match.
In the second set, again the Lancers/Gaels match-up proved to be formidable as both sides once again exchanged points and made sure that neither side could break away early on and during the midway stages of the set. However, the Lancers would let up a little bit once Queen’s offence started sparking later in the frame which allowed them to come away with a more controlled pace down the stretch that propelled them to a 25-19 second set swipe away from the Lancers to go up 2-0 in the contest.
In the third set, everyone knew not to count the Lancers out as the determined and resilient blue and gold continued to apply pressure on the Gaels to have to earn their potential victory on their home court. Having travelled 6-hours to Kingston, surely the boys did not want to drop all three in a row to the hosting Gaels in their first meeting this season, and that was on full display with several blocks that ensued by the white and blue uniform Lancers who kept their blocks strong. Moreover, their offence was up to par with the Gaels thanks to DeGirolamo’s playmaking abilities setting up his teammates for several valiant offensive attacks which kept the Lancers in it down the stretch.
Both teams found themselves in a two-point tug-of-war down the stretch as Queen’s pushed Windsor to the brink on multiple occasions, but the Lancers would not go down easy without a fight. The blue and gold managed to have their own opportunities as well of capitalizing on a set point, but Queen’s was able to stave off any hope of a Lancer extension or comeback as both teams found themselves jostling into the rare 30-point territory. In the end, Queen’s would emerge victorious as the Lancers were faulted on a back-row attack violation which conceded the game to the Gaels in a dramatic fashion finishing off Windsor with third set score of 34-32. The disappointing loss now moves the Lancers to 8-2 on the season while Queen’s improves to 4-6.
SATURDAY
Game two of the weekend saw the same intensity as Friday night. Windsor came into the game determined to not be swept, and did just that claiming the first two sets over the host Gaels.
Queen’s, however, did not sit back and watch, coming from behind and winning the final three sets to take the win in five.
Zach Albert led the way for the blue and gold with 23 points on 20 kills, seven digs and three service aces. Luca Nastase had another good game as well with 22.5 points, 19 kills, and 12 digs.
More to come.
UP NEXT
Windsor will host the Toronto Varsity Blues in a pair of games next weekend at the Toldo Lancer Centre. Visit goLancers.ca for more information and to purchase your tickets in advance.