TORONTO (January 28, 2017) - The Queen's Gaels (8-5) took down the Toronto Varsity Blues (4-6) in a five-set thriller at the Goldring Centre in Toronto on Saturday night.
Markus Trence (Orangeville, Ont.) set a new career high with 24 kills in the match finishing with three blocks for 27 points while adding 13 digs.
Jamie Wright (Kingston, Ont.) hit the 50 plus mark in assists for the third time this season, and was one of five Gaels to finish with 13 or more blocks coming in at 14 for the night.
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GAME FLOW
Throughout the match, both teams were neck-and-neck trading leads but never letting the other pull away by more than a handful of points. The Gaels dropped the opening set 25-18 despite operating with a 0.192 kill percentage to the Varsity Blues 0.135 mark. Queen's was able to bounce back in the second set taking it 25-17 thanks to the 0.375 percentage, their highest in any set of the match.
The Gaels carried the momentum into the third set and were able to steal the win despite a push from Toronto taking the set 25-22. After Toronto returned the favour in the fourth set the match was headed for a fifth and final deciding frame.
The Gaels fell behind early but were able to stay composed and keep the match close. At the switch it was Toronto ahead by just one. Queen's was propelled by strong attacks from Trence setting the Gaels up with a match point serve. The Gaels landed an ace to seal the set 15-10 and take the win 3-2.
Along with Trence, two other Gaels registered double-digits in points as
Joel Rudd (Cambridge, Ont.) had 13 while
Zac Hutcheson (Kingston, Ont.) finished with 14.
Toronto saw four players with 10 or more kills and setter Jordan Figueira tallied 51 assists and 10 digs.
BY THE NUMBERS
7 - Players combined from both sides went over 12 points in the match
61 - Total kills from Queen's
4 - Just four kills in the fifth set from Toronto compared to 10 from the Gaels
UP NEXT
Queen's will travel to Peterborough to take on the Trent Excalibur next Friday night. The match is set to start at 8pm.
