Lancers tame Lions in weekend homestead

The Windsor Lancer men’s volleyball team managed to win a pair of recent home outings over the York Lions this past weekend. 
 
On Friday the Lancers swept the visiting Lions 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, and 25-14) before following up on Saturday with a hard fought 3-1 (25-15, 25-17, 21-25, and 27-25) win at the Toldo Lancer Centre on what was Senior’s Night recognizing three graduating players contributions to the men’s volleyball program in seniors Luca Nastase, Julien Jouan, and Samuel McKeague. 
 
FRIDAY STATS
The Lancers were led offensively by Gustavo Siqueira who had 13 kills in the sweeping victory over York. 
 
Luca Nastase had service aces in the win as well making an impact from the service line throughout the match.  Nastase also led the Lancers defensively with 7 digs in the contest.
 
Markus Law-Heese produced 28 assists in the win in Windsor to allow the Lancers to run an effective offense throughout the night and wrap up in three straight sets.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED ON FRIDAY
The Lions challenged the Lancers early in set one ensuring that Windsor could not accumulate too much of a lead to go up on the visitors in the opening set. 
 
Windsor managed to stay in the driver’s seat with their strong steady play which allowed them open up a gap that became difficult for York to overcome down the stretch and finish off the first set ahead with a 25-19 score and 1-0 lead in the match.
 
The second set saw similar back and forth action going into the midway point of the set where Windsor again ramped up their play to expand a lead on the scoreboard and not allow York back into the set.  The Lions struggled late in the set to respond to the Lancers who were able to go ahead 2-0 in the match with a 25-16 second set win.
 
Windsor kept it going into the third set where the blue and gold held all the momentum in opening up a 6-0 lead early on the scoreboard before the wounded Lions could respond. 
 
The blue and gold marched on in convincingly sweeping the Lions with their strong play to comfortably cruise by York with a 25-14 third set win and 3-0 Friday night victory at the TLC. 
 
SATURDAY STATS
Luca Nastase led the Lancers with 13 kills in Saturday’s Senior’s Night victory over the Lions in what was likely to be his last game playing with the blue and gold at the TLC. 
 
Darian Koskie had 10 kills and 6 blocks to also help the Lancers out while in the front row in securing the second victory on the weekend over York.
 
Meanwhile Markus Law-Heese racked up 39 assists in helping to lead his team to victory.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED ON SATURDAY
Following the special pre-game ceremony honouring the blue and gold’s three graduating senior players in front of their friends and family in attendance, the Lancers opened up the score of the first set with a 4-0 lead before York could respond. 
 
The Lions found themselves in a hole throughout the set unable to claw back out of it where the Lancers were able to eventually trample by them with a 25-15 score to go up 1-0.
 
The second set began with another close-range score which later became a Lancer lead that would be tough for the red and white visitors to catch up to as they trailed by ten points at 20-10, Windsor found themselves in control and were able to round out the second set on top 25-17 to be one set away from a second straight match victory on the weekend.
 
The Lions would not make it an easy task for the Lancers in the third set who were eyeing another three-set sweep to wrap up their Senior’s Night on a sweeping note, as York managed to come alive and roar back with some newfound energy generated from York’s Alex Ko who kept them in the contest throughout. 
 
With a new flame ignited, York managed to prolong the match to an additional set and stave off a second straight sweep in Windsor to make it a 2-1 match with their 25-21 third set win.
 
Off to a fourth set it went with the Lions on the verge of triggering another additional set as they were in the hunt to pray on the Lancers Senior’s Night party by remaining competitive and being engaged in a close back-and-forth battle with the blue and gold. 
 
The fourth set needed extra points to decide the match’s fate in what would be ahead either needing a fifth and final deciding set or if the Lancers could finish off the Lions in four.
 
Despite York levelling up their play on par with Windsor’s late in the match, the Lancers managed to seal the deal at 27-25 to win in Windsor for a final time this season in front of a raucous volleyball crowd on hand to watch their Senior’s Night game end on a 3-1 winning note.
 
UP NEXT
The Lancers will be back in action next weekend on the road in Toronto to take on the Toronto Varsity Blues on Friday February 16th at 8:00pm and again on Saturday February 17th at 4:00pm. 
 
Fans can tune into the upcoming road action on oua.tv or instead be sure to follow along on X for live updates throughout the Lancers final matches of the 2023-24 OUA regular season next weekend.