KINGSTON, Ont. (January 15, 2017) - The Queen's Gaels (4-6) defeated RMC Paladins (0-10) in their first OUA league game of 2017. The scores of the sets finished at 25-9, 25-13 and 25-16 for the Gaels.
GAME FLOW
Queen's opened the game with an immediate lead of 6-1, RMC called an timeout to recover the momentum that the Gaels had taken. The timeout did not halt the Gaels offence as serving an immediate ace was Victoria Wensley (Coquitlam, B.C.). The Gaels were able to hold a strong lead the entire set, thanks to a strong presence from Nicola Ros (North Vancouver, B.C.) who dished out many of her 13 assists in the set.
The game opened up with the Paladins ready to fight, the score was neck and neck in the first half of the second set. Ros was injured after being hit, and was replaced by Sierra Hardy (Oakville, Ont.). In spite of their injury, the Gaels were able to continue to dominate the game and finish with a set score of 25-13 for the Gaels. Savannah de Groot (Ottawa, Ont) had a number of kills in the set for the Gaels and finished with eight for the game.
RMC started with quickpoints in the third set, with a 1-0 opening and a neck and neck battle of 4-4 in the first minutes, tied 6-6, 7-7, 9-9, RMC called a timeout when the Gaels broke the tie taking three consecutive points for a score of 12-9 . The timeout did not advance the Paladins but the teams continued to keep a close game with a score of 16-12 for the Gaels at the technical timeout. The Gaels pushed forward from there an came away with the set 25-16 and the match 3-0.
BY THE NUMBERS
416 - As a team the Gaels are second in the OUA for overall kills this season with 416 kills
10 - The number of points scored by de Groot, a career high with the Gaels
1 - Only one error was made by the Gaels offensively in the first and second set
FINAL SAY
"We did a lot in December, we came back on the 28th and we had competition right away against Montreal and we hosted Moncton right away, we also went to the RMC tournament. Throughout that time it was a really good way to face other athletes across the net and I think we did a really good job at preparing ourselves for league which is always tough coming back from the break. They played hard, with all the games that we played it looked fairly smooth, there is always little things that we can fix but overall I was pretty happy. Offensively I was pretty happy, in the first two sets we only made one error in each which was pretty impressive. RMC is a scrappy team and they will pick up the balls and make our lives tough. We did a great job offensively and defensively as well." - Michael Ling (Head Coach)
UP NEXT
The Gaels (4-6) and the RMC (0-10) Paladins will have an immediate rematch next week on January 21 at 1pm. The Gaels will be staying in Kingston, traveling down the road where the teams will face off with the Paladins having the home advantage.
