OTTAWA (February 26, 2012) - The Queen's Gaels won the 2012 women's volleyball OUA championship on Sunday afternoon by knocking off the Ottawa Gee-Gees in four sets 3-1. The set scores finished 25-19, 22-25, 25-17 and 25-10 as Queen's secured their first OUA championship title.

Natalie Gray of Oshawa, Ont. led the way for Queen's with a game high 19 kills while adding 11 digs. Becky Billings of Ottawa had a team high 15 digs while adding 12 kills of her own and nabbing two service aces. Kelsey Bishop of North Vancouver, B.C. was a force all weekend for the Gaels and continued her strong play with 11 kills and three solo blocks.
 
The Gee-Gees were led by Laura Carmanico of Stittsville, Ont. who had 12 kills and seven digs on the day.

After finishing the regular season having split their games with a win each the Gaels and Gee-Gees OUA championship match went back and forth between the two rival schools. The Gaels started out in control in the first set as they never trailed after being down 5-4. Queen's stayed the course and after the Gee-Gees pulled to within one at 19-18 the Gaels went on a four point run to lead 23-18 before closing out the set 25-19.

The second set was nearly a reverse of the first as Ottawa never trailed in the set after falling behind 6-5 to Queen's. The Gaels made it interesting, climbing to 22 points of their own but the Gee-Gees held on for the set win.

In set three Queen's took control of the game opening up leads of 10-4, 14-9 and 21-15 before closing out the Gee-Gees at 25-18. Gray led the way with five of her 19 kills in the set.

The Gaels dropped behind mid-way through the fourth set but were able to create a six point swing going from being down 13-16, to leading 19-16 with the championship in their sights.  With a 22-19 lead the Gaels took three of the final four points to secure the championship win.

“It was a fantastic tournament, a fantastic win,” said Gaels coach Joely Christian-Macfarlane, clutching the championship trophy. “We started the season with the idea that we were just going to play the best volleyball we could play match after match and we found a way to do that so when we got to the final we could play the best match of the year. I'm very excited to take our team to McMaster.”

With the win the Gaels will now compete for a CIS title as they head to Hamilton for the 2012 CIS Women's Volleyball Championship hosted by McMaster on March 2-4.