KINGSTON, Ont. (Feb. 23, 2024) – Queen’s Men’s Volleyball advanced to the OUA Forsyth Cup Playoffs semifinals with a 3-0 (25-20, 25-15, 29-27) win over the Toronto Varsity Blues Friday night at the Athletics and Recreation Centre (ARC).
The Gaels opened their quarterfinals win with comfortable wins in the first two sets before overcoming some adversity in the third set. Queen’s trailed the third set 27-17 but managed to come back and eventually take the set – and the game – in extra points.
Chris Zimmerman (Prince George, B.C.) had a strong performance for Queen’s, finishing with a game-high 37 assists while adding four blocks.
“I think it’s great for our confidence. Playing at home is what we wanted all season, so the work that we put in in the regular season really set us up for this. Having the crowd behind us, and building that in the semis will be huge.”
Other big performances for the Gaels included Erik Siksna (Markham, Ont.), who finished with nine kills, five blocks, and eight digs; Zig Licis (Louisville, CO), who tied for a game-high 10 kills; Lhexen Rabit (Hamilton, Ont.), with a game-high 12 digs; and Reed Venning (Courtice, Ont.), who finished with five aces.
“We set our theme for the week as Chapter Two. Chapter One being the regular season behind us, now it’s time to open a new page and set ourselves up for success going into the rest of the playoff run,” said Queen’s Men’s Volleyball Head Coach Gabriel deGroot. deGroot added the team’s belief in their abilities was a big factor in them overcoming adversity in the third set and ultimately taking the win.
“The cool part is that we struggled in our belief in our service game and where we’re capable of breaking the game open is on our service game. So for Reed (Venning) to go on that run, and trust his serving game, was really impressive. We need to keep believing in that.”
“For us, it’s all about trusting our processes,” Zimmerman echoed. “When we hit the ball hard, we serve hard, we’re unstoppable. We might have lost that a little bit in the third set in the middle there, but we kept trusting it, having each other’s backs, and we’ll get there.”
Queen’s will host their OUA semifinals matchup against the winner of Saturday’s game between the No. 3 Brock Badgers and No. 6 Western Mustangs. The game will take place Friday, March 1 at 8 p.m. at the ARC.
With the team set to host the U SPORTS Men’s Volleyball Championship after the OUA Playoffs, deGroot said the team will shift their training this week with both goals in mind.
“We’re in a really unique situation where we’re going to start aligning our training schedule to match up with the Thursday, Friday, Sunday split of nationals. As much as we’re preparing for a semifinal, we have bigger goals in mind so our training structure starts to shift. It’s a little bit unique, but it’s because we have long-term goals.”
“Practice is going to work,” Zimmerman said. “We’re going to work and we’re working our butts off until the end of the day. Empty the tanks is what we always say. Relentless effort, everyday.”
Tickets for the OUA semifinals match can be purchased on game day at the ARC or online on the Queen’s Gaels Tickets Webpage.