The Lancer men’s volleyball team split their weekend series with the No. 6 Toronto Varsity Blues following a dynamic 3-2 (25-16, 21-25, 22-25, 25-23, 15-8) win on Saturday evening at the TLC.
The win improves the blue and gold’s record to 9-4 on the season, while the Blues fall to 10-3.
STATS
Windsor was led by another all-around solid performance by veteran right-side Luca Nastase with 17 kills, 13 digs, 2 service aces and 5 blocks while Toronto’s outside hitter Evan Falardeau led the Varsity Blues with 19 kills and 11 digs.
Supporting Nastase in the Lancer victory however came from the blue and gold’s setting duo seen in the contest which was split between Anthony DeGirolamo (27) and Markus Law-Heese (20) who combined for 47 assists total in the win. While Brazilian import talent, Gustavo Siqueira, had a monster performance of his own contributing to the winning cause with 16 kills, 11 digs and 3 assists from out of system balls.
Also worth noting, Windsor native, Anthony Ivanovski had 5 blocks of his own along with the consistent strong plays produced from Chase Bridges-Hunter and Zach Albert on a recurring basis throughout that all came together to impress the raucous Lancer home crowd at the TLC who witnessed the 5-set thriller first-hand and see the Lancers capture the. revenge victory.
GAME FLOW
The Lancers had a strong start out of the gate and controlled the pace of the first set for the most part which allowed them to easily take the first set win by a score of 25-16 over the Blues. Nastase, Siqueira, and Albert all set the tone with their offensive strikes towards Toronto’s defence propelling the Lancers to go up 1-0 in the match on their home court.
The Blues were able to shake off losing the first set to the host Lancers and battle back in the second set to earn a 25-21 win over Windsor and tie the match up at 1-1 each heading into an important third set. Falardeau shined throughout the set along the strong play of Mitchell Neuert and Hunter Arulpragasm who applied pressure on the Lancers throughout.
In the third, Toronto took an early lead before the blue and gold fought their way back to tie the game at 22-22. However, after a Blues timeout, the visitors scored three quick points in succession to win 25-22 and take an advantageous 2-1 lead in the match.
The fourth saw Windsor’s intensity pick up, unfazed by the trailing 2-1 match score against them as the teams battled it out for every point. Earned not given plays were the theme of the set in which the score remained close with neither squad leading by more than two points at a time. However, in the end, Windsor pulled out an exciting 25-23 win to tie the game up at two sets a-piece and head for the second straight night into a fifth and final deciding set.
In the final set, the Lancers determination did not evaporate as they stormed out to a 6-2 lead and never looked back. The Blues used both of their timeouts to try and calm the storm produced by the Lancers. However, Windsor continued to control the floor and not let up by focusing on the task at hand and working away en route to a 15-8 set win to compete the comeback and claim the match in thrilling entertaining fashion.
UP NEXT
Windsor will now get set to host the Guelph Gryphons in game one of a weekend doubleheader on Friday, January 27th at 8:00pm at the Toldo Lancer Centre. Tickets are available at goLancers.ca/tickets and the game will be streamed live at oua.tv.