KINGSTON, Ont. (January 23, 2016) – The No. 8 Gaels (10-3) finished up their home weekend with another three set sweep (25-19, 25-21, 25-23), last night against the York Lions and this time against the Nipissing Lakers (5-10).
Leading the Gaels in their win was veteran
Mike Tomlinson (Stratford, Ont.) who smacked down 16 kills off an efficiency of 0.462.
Scott Brunet (Calgary) was another key player, finishing with 10 kills on a 0.692 percentage and putting down a serving ace. The Lakers saw strong performances by Lyndon Sonego who smacked down 14 kills and Steven Wood who scored six kills and digs a piece as well as a service ace.
GAME FLOW Queen's opened up their night with a handful of kills from Tomlinson right down the line that sent the Lakers scrambling as the Gaels grabbed the early lead. Finally settling down, Nipissing edged ahead of the Gaels to reach double digits before their hosts. The Gaels regained their lead to meet the technical timeout up by a three point margin. They succeeded in riding their momentum through the rest of the set with
Marko Dakic (Mississauga, Ont.) slamming home a back court kill to end the set 25-19.
The teams traded points in the second set with Nipissing getting ahead only to have Queen's steal a two point lead of their own. Nipissing responded and took their first timeout of the set which caused the Gaels to drop a point off a service error, yet the No. 8 team stayed ahead to lead 16-14 at the break. The Gaels took the 20 point turn first and despite back-to-back kills from their opponents, won their second set 25-21.
The first point belonged to the Gaels in the final frame with a pair of service aces from Dakic handing the Gaels a three point advantage over the Lakers. The teams stayed close with four tied scores before the Gaels met the technical timeout matching their second set lead of 16-14. Queen's took off from the break with four consecutive points pushing Nipissing coach Eric Yung to call a timeout. The Lakers came right up on their heels as the Gaels met the match point up by only one. With a deep back court kill from
Tyler Scheerhoorn (Belleville, Ont.) the Gaels finished off their weekend with another 3-0 victory.
FINAL SAY? "The Ryerson game next week will be a big test," said head coach
Brenda Willis. "I think we're playing well.
Jamie Wright is almost over his sprained ankle now and he's starting to move much better. He ran a good offence today and as a result our efficiency was quite high. We served very aggressively and Nipissing had a lot of trouble passing to their middles, which was part of our strategy. The fans were also great tonight and really helped us out."
BY THE NUMBERS 0.387 – The Queen's efficiency in their win.
36 – Assists by setter Wright.
2 – Queen's only gave away two errors in the second set.
3 – The Gaels go 2-1 in their last three matches.
UP NEXT The No. 8 Gaels will head to Toronto next weekend where they will meet up with the Varsity Blues and the No. 10 Ryerson Rams. Queen's is scheduled to play the Blues at 8:00 pm on Friday, January 29.
