Lancers split with No. 3 Gaels

The No. 9 Windsor Lancer men’s volleyball team hosted the No. 3 Queen’s Gaels on Friday and Saturday night in Windsor at the Toldo Lancer Centre.
 
The blue and gold lost to Queen’s on Friday night 3-0 (23-25, 18-25, 20-25) and suffered only their second loss of the season to date. Meanwhile on Saturday night the Lancers were able to rebound after a rocky start and successfully take down the Gaels 3-1 (14-25, 25-19, 25-15, 25-23) in what was dubbed a tremendous revenge victory and upset over higher ranked Gaels and hand Queen’s their first loss of the season heading into the fall exam period and holiday break.
 
FRIDAY STATS
Gustavo Siqueira led the Lancers offensively on Friday with 6 kills and 2 service aces in the loss to the Gaels. 
 
Noah Koskie had 5 kills and 2 blocks while Anthony Ivanovski had 4 kills and 3 blocks in the defeat. 
 
The Gaels were led on Friday by Erik Siksna who had 10 kills and 3 service aces which helped to propel Queen’s to sweep past the Lancers on Friday night’s loss to the tricoloured team.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED ON FRIDAY
The first set played out exactly as anticipated between the two nationally ranked teams, close throughout and hard to predict who would come out on top. 
 
Both teams traded points all throughout the set before the Lancers found themselves ahead by three points at the 20-17 mark. 
 
The Gaels then used a timeout and came back from it with a recharged and refocused mindset which allowed them to counter the Lancers strong play in the opening set of the weekend. 
 
The blue and gold appeared to have had control down the stretch in the set but that would all change when the Gaels tied the game up at 23-23 to make it a win-by-two situation from there on out. 
 
Queen’s would then earn set point and close out the first set on top over Windsor following the Lancers using a timeout to wrap up the first set on with a service ace and make it a 1-0 lead for the Gaels in the match.
 
The second set appeared much different than the first despite starting off similarly.  The Gaels came out with stronger play and enhanced confidence which rattled the Lancers especially on serve receive.
 
The Gaels kept control all throughout the set not letting up at all on the Lancers despite Windsor’s attempts to try and claw back.  In the end Windsor could not catch up and Queen’s was able to wrap up the second set 25-18 and go up 2-0 on the Lancers in the match.
 
Queen’s would open the third set with a wide gap accumulated by strong serving and attacks against the Lancers side of the court.  The Gaels would double up their lead at 12-6 and continued to remain ahead of the blue and gold for the duration of the third set despite the Lancers trying to tread water to stick around with the Gaels in this set. 
 
In the end, Queen’s would top the Lancers 25-20 in the third set to take the first match of the weekend in sweeping fashion fresh off the 6-hour bus ride down from Kingston to remain flawless at 7-0 on the season heading into the Saturday rematch affair.
 
SATURDAY STATS
Noah Koskie had another solid performance which included leading the way offensively for the Lancers with 8 kills in the victory over Queens including the match winning kill along with producing 2 service aces on the night as well.
 
Chase Bridges was effective too with his offensive output producing 8 kills of his own for the blue and gold as well as a service ace and putting up 5 blocks at the net. 
 
Darian Koskie also contributed heavily offensively with his 7 kills and service ace which helped aide the Lancers cause in capturing the comeback win over Queen’s. 
 
Windsor’s setter Markus Law-Heese had 20 assists in the victory for the Lancers helping to quarterback the Lancers offense throughout. 
 
Queen’s shining star was Siksna again who did shine in the Gaels first loss of the season which was served by the Lancers as Siksna recorded an impressive 11 kills and whopping 5 service aces which challenged the Windsor serve receive throughout the match.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED ON SATURDAY
The Gaels started off the Saturday showdown with a scathing score generated from hard driven serves over the net that worked against the Lancers as once again strong serves off the hands of the Gaels caused trouble towards the Lancer serve receive passers for a second straight night.
 
An early timeout was called to try and stop any further damage from being done which did result in Queen’s losing their serving mojo but not there lead for the remainder of the first set.  Windsor did try hard to keep up with Queen’s but ultimately the first became a write-off for them as the Gaels cruised to a 25-14 capture a 1-0 match lead.
 
Things began to turn around for the Lancers in the second set who shrugged off the one-sided first set loss and sweeping result from the night before to instead compete with a refocused mindset that allowed them to stick with the Gaels throughout the early stages of the second set.
 
The Lancers started to gain momentum and control approaching the midway mark of the set as things began to click for them and the Gaels started to lose a bit of their edge throughout as the set waned on. Windsor broke open an eight-point cushion at a score of 18-10 which caused Queen’s to have to use a timeout to try and reset.  Windsor would continue to thrive throughout the duration of the later stages of the second set to take it 25-19 and tie the match up at 1-1.
The third set was another even tilt at the start that progressively favoured the Lancers approaching double digit territory where they were able to strike first.  The Lancers amassed a lead as high as 10 points which held true at the end of the set with a 25-15 third set win and 2-1 match lead.
 
With a newfound energy inside of the TLC, the Lancers continued to play with confidence and swagger going into the fourth set despite Queen’s not wanting to give up their winless record without a fight.  The Gaels brought the heat early in the set which ramped up the game’s intensity even more.  A high-energy Gaels squad even had a yellow card issued to the team’s bench early in the fourth which rattled the cage of the OUA’s top ranked team at present. 
 
The blue and gold were able to elevate their play steadily throughout the set to continue finding themselves ahead on the scoreboard approaching the midway point of the fourth set wanting to not be wanting to have to play a fifth and final deciding set.  Instead, the Lancers were able to buckle down and focus on the task at hand in ensuring that they were in control of their court and prove that they were able to take down one of the league’s gladiators as an admirable opponent to be respected and put the league on notice heading into the holiday break.
 
Windsor was able to compete hard to the end despite Queen’s keeping up the same intensity and an attempted comeback by the Gaels down the stretch came up short which meant that the Lancers were able to capitalize in succeeding on home court by getting back into the win column with an exciting finish of 25-23 and 3-1 match win to close out 2023 on a high winning note. With the win Windsor improves their record 6-2 on the campaign while Queen’s fell to 7-1 which will now stand heading into next year when play will resume back up again in January.
 
UP NEXT
The Lancers will now head into the fall exam period followed immediately by the holiday break which will see them not return to the court again until the new year in 2024. 
 
The Lancers will be kicking off their second half of the 2023-24 season on the road when they will take on the Waterloo Warriors up in Waterloo on Friday January 5, 2024, and again on Saturday January 6, 2024. 
 
The Windsor Lancers wishes the members of the women’s volleyball team all the best with their upcoming exams and would like to wish all of the Lancer Family a happy and healthy holiday season and are looking forward to seeing action resume in 2024!