The Lancer men’s volleyball team opened the new year with a pair of strong victories over the RMC Paladins this past weekend in Kingston.
Windsor swept the weekend with a 3-0 (25-12, 25-9, 25-16) win on Friday and a 3-0 (25-13, 25-16, 25-19) victory on Saturday to improve their record on the season to 8-1. The Lancers are now currently sitting third in the OUA standings.
FRIDAY Anthony DeGirolamo was an outstanding asset for the blue and gold, leading the team and the game with a high 31 total assists. The Lancers spread their offence around the floor with Julien Jouan and Luca Nastase both leading the squad with 9 kills, while Zach Albert contributed seven.
Defensively, Albert had a team high 11 digs, while Gustavo Siqueira had eight, and Nastase contributed five.
SATURDAY
Luca Natase led the way offensively with 12 kills for Windsor while Julien Jouan had himself another impressive game against the Paladins contributing 7 kills of his own to the victory.
Zach Albert continued to shine for the Lancers by adding 5 kills, 2 service aces, and 10 digs defensively for another well-rounded game from the first-year Lancer and OUA veteran.
Another OUA veteran in Lancers fifth-year setter, Anthony DeGirolamo, also had a solid performance from his hands with 34 assists, 2 service aces, and 4 blocks in the afternoon outing.
RMC was led offensively by Windsor native, Joshua Wilkinson, who had 9 kills against his hometown team in the loss.
In the first set, the Lancers saw a valiant effort from the host Paladins who went back and forth with them early in the set. Both sides traded points up until the Lancers reached double digits first and began running away with the set, breaking open a 12-point spread at the midway point of the set which then followed into the later stages to an eventual 25-13 set win and went up 1-0 in the match.
The second set saw RMC again testing Windsor making the visitors having to earn themselves a second straight win in Kingston on the weekend. The red and white held the lead early on but the Lancers would regroup and find their footing by coming together and gelling their offense to stick with it and claim an eventual 25-19 and take a 2-0 lead.
While in the third set the Lancers were hot out of the gate with a 3-0 lead which then was maintained up until the 6-6 score in which RMC would battle back to try and avoid being swept at home again. A pesky and persistent Paladins squad would again play up to par with the blue and gold throughout the set tagging along for the ride with the Lancers until the 17-15 mark when the Lancers stopped trading points so frequently with their opponents. Windsor would take care of business down the stretch closing out with a 25-19 set win and 3-0 victory to round out the weekend in Kingston.
UP NEXT
The Lancers will now prepare to get set for another road trip back to Kingston next weekend when they will this time travel to Queen’s to take on the Queen’s Gaels at the ARC Gymnasium on Friday January 13th at 8:00pm. Fans can catch the live action streaming on oua.tv or follow along for live in-game updates on our Twitter page throughout the match.