KINGSTON, Ont. (February 13, 2016) – The No. 10 Gaels (13-5) started off their home weekend with a 3-0 (25-20, 25-14, 25-16) sweep of the Western Mustangs (9-8) this Saturday afternoon.
Queen's was led once again by
Marko Dakic (Mississauga, Ont.) who chalked up 14 kills off a 0.458 efficiency as well as
Mike Tomlinson (Stratford, Ont.) who added 10 kills, four digs and a serving ace. For Western, Mike Choja led the offensive front with nine kills off a 0.500 efficiency. Setter Mike Hooker supported the Mustangs with his 24 assists in the three set match.
This afternoon the Gaels honoured their six graduating team members before the game. Queen's will be saying farewell to
Ivo Dramov (Plovdiv, Bulgaria),
Matt Golas (Toronto),
Tyler Scheerhoorn (Belleville, Ont.), Dakic,
Scott Brunet (Calgary, Alta.) and Tomlinson after the season comes to a close.
GAME FLOW The visitors opened up their night with back-to-back kills giving them an early 2-0 lead over Queen's. It was a close campaign from that point on with seven tied points as the Gaels kept close on Western's heels. The Gaels grabbed their first lead of the match at 13-12 and ran through the technical timeout leading by a two point margin. Forcing the Mustangs to use both their timeouts, the Gaels opened up the gap off a five point run and with a big hit from Scheerhoorn locked down the 25-19 set win.
The first point of the second set went to Western but the Gaels quickly fought their way back into the lead off a handful of blocks. By the second technical timeout the Gaels had doubled the Mustangs 16-8 and from there continued to dominate, getting ahead by double digits late in the set. As the final points of the set played out the Mustangs managed to find the floor with their hits but the Gaels were too far ahead to be denied a second set win which they put away 25-14 to go up 2-0 over Western.
It was another close campaign to start off the set in the final frame as the teams traded early leads. Once again the Gaels pulled ahead of their opponents with the offensive dominance of Tomlinson helping them reach the technical timeout with a seven point lead. The Gaels kept in front of Western for the rest of the match to score the 25-16 set which topped off their 3-0 win.
FINAL SAY? "It was an emotional start, we were a little tight after the graduating athlete ceremony," said head coach
Brenda Willis. "The guys played well today though. Our block defense was very disciplined and our serve put Western in a lot of trouble. They're pretty good up the middle and one of our goals was to serve tough enough to keep them from being able to run it. We did that well and stopped their middle quite often."
On looking forward to the playoffs: "We're in control of our destiny, if we're able to win out against Windsor tomorrow and RMC next week then we own second place and that was the goal."
BY THE NUMBERS 0.684 – The Queen's efficiency in the second set and their highest of the match.
10 – Team blocks for Queen's in their win.
0 – The Gaels recorded no errors in their second set.
UP NEXT The Gaels will be back in action on their home court tomorrow afternoon when they will take on the Windsor Lancers at 3:00 pm.
