No.10 Lancers split with Badgers

The No. 10 U SPORTS nationally ranked Windsor Lancer men’s volleyball team hosted the Brock Badgers on Friday and Saturday evening for a pair of marquee match ups which resulted in a split decision for the blue and gold on the weekend.
 
On Friday, the Lancers bested the Badgers in five sets with a 3-2 (18-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-27, and 15-13) win in front of an electric Toldo Lancer Centre crowd full of volleyball fans in attendance. 
 
On Saturday, the Badgers bounced back serving the Lancers a 3-1 (22-25, 23-25, 25-18, 17-25) revenge loss to avenge the heartbreaking loss to Windsor from the night before at the TLC. 
 
The Badgers improved to 11-3 on the campaign following Saturday’s win in Windsor while the Lancers fell to 8-4 on the year after the weekend at home against Brock.
 
FRIDAY GAME STATS
Gustavo Siqueira had 17 kills in the five-set thriller victory over the Badgers. 
 
Darian Koskie racked up 12 kills of his own to help contribute to the Windsor win over Brock. 
 
At the net, Anthony Ivanovski had 5 blocks in helping to stop the Badgers offence while on defence. 
 
Meanwhile Markus Law-Heese had a defensive team high of 8 digs in addition to the 49 assists accumulated in setting up his team for a successful victory outing over Brock.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED ON FRIDAY
The Badgers came into the TLC full steam ahead looking to pull off an upset win on the Lancers home court to kick off the blue and gold’s first winter semester game at home. 
 
Brock found a way to pile on the points early to grab a 1-0 lead in the match with a 25-18 first set win.
 
The second set saw Windsor restore their confidence and remain unfazed by Brock’s efforts put forth by countering them with a consistent set of solid play which rewarded them down the stretch with a narrow 25-23 second set win to tie up the match at 1-1.
 
The third set continued to be a battle where both sides exchanged points and found themselves unable to gain a large advantage over the other team until later in the set when the Lancers generated some momentum to close out on top 25-21 and earn a 2-1 lead in the match. 
 
With the Badgers feeling the heat, the Lancers kept pouring on the pressure with their high energy performance that continued to result in tremendous rallies throughout.  Brock to their credit, kept up the same intensity remaining vigilant in wanting to stay alive to trigger a fifth set. 
 
When it appeared Windsor would ice the cake in four, Brock had different plans as they inched closer which eventually became a win-by-two set scenario after managing to not go down on match point to the Lancers at 24-22. 
 
The set then took a turn into extra points where the Badgers were able to flip the script on the Lancers and earn a heard fought 27-25 fourth set win to force a fifth and final deciding set with the match tied at 2-2. 
 
In the fifth set, with the emotions and intensity running high for both teams, points and plays were traded throughout the set which was again a common theme all night long. 
 
Brock managed to score 8 points first to initiate the side switch which returned them to their original starting side of the court.  However, the Lancers were not out of the fight just yet as they continued to stay within a reasonable range during and even take back the lead at 13-12 following a 12-8 deficit to the Badgers. 
 
Windsor triggered match point at 14-13 and it all came right down to the wire where they were able to close out on top with a hard-fought well-deserved fifth set win of 15-13 and 3-2 match victory over the Badgers closing out the match in dramatic fashion in front of a large late night home crowd on hand at the TLC with a solid team win on home court. 
 
SATURDAY GAME STATS
Gustavo Siqueira led the Lancers offensively with 13 kills and defensively with 8 digs in the follow up loss to Brock. Siqueria had 2 service aces and 4 blocks as well on the statline. 
 
Chase Bridges had 8 kills of his own and a game high of 3 service aces to spark further offensive flair for the Lancers. 
 
Markus Law-Heese had 37 assists in the loss in helping to perpetuate the Lancers offence. 
 
Brock was led by a trio of offensive leaders to claim a hard-fought victory over the Lancers as outside hitters Kaleb Robinson and Kylar Code each had 17 kills for the Badgers while Devin Cooney had 16 kills of his own. 
 
Brock’s setter Grant Reddon had 53 assists in fueling the Badgers offense to win over Windsor. 
HOW IT HAPPENED ON SATURDAY
The first set was another see-saw set seeing the Badgers and Lancers evenly matched throughout the set.  The Badgers found a way down the stretch to break away from the Lancers being on their heels to take the first set 25-22 to go up 1-0 in the match. 
 
The second set saw an even more closely contested set that resulted in a stalemated tie on 16 occasions throughout the set.  Windsor kept themselves actively in the hunt of trying to tie up the match but in the end, Brock would edge the Lancers with a 25-23 second set win following up on more consistent play from the first set to go up 2-0.
 
With the Badgers on the verge of clinching a sweeping victory over the Lancers, the blue and gold did not want to fall just yet.  After a 9-9 tie, the Lancers managed to pick up the pace and ramp up their intense play to another level to propel themselves to a 25-18 third set win over the Badgers and stave off a sweep to make it a 2-1 match heading into a fourth set.
 
It was another back-and-forth affair in the fourth set which continued to show that both teams were hungrily looking to come out on top. 
 
However, in the end there could only be one winner of the match and after a 14-14 tie, Brock managed to go on a run that shifted momentum to 18-14 and after that the red and white did not look back and managed to cross the finish line ahead of the blue and gold to close out with a 25-17 fourth set win and 3-1 match victory over the Lancers.
 
UP NEXT
The Lancers will travel up to Guelph next weekend to take on the Guelph Gryphons on Friday and Saturday at the Guelph Gryphon Athletics Centre. Friday night’s contest is scheduled for first serve at 8:00pm while Saturday is slated for a 6:00pm start time. 
 
Lancer fans can catch the action streaming on oua.tv or follow our official Windsor Lancers X account to keep up with live tweets and in-game updates shared throughout.