KINGSTON, Ont. (November 5, 2017) – The Queen's Gaels (1-1) suffered a heartbreaking loss in a hard-fought five-set match against the York Lions (3-0). The scores of each set were 25-21, 15-25, 31-29, 22-25 and 20-18.
 
GAME FLOW
Jack Peckham (Hamilton, Ont.) started off the first set with high intensity, leading the Gaels with a strong serve rally and hard kill.  The Lions fought their way back surpassing the Gaels to a score of 13-11. York maintained their lead as the Tricolour struggled to find a gap in the Lions blocks. The Gaels battled their way back from a 7-point deficit, slowly closing the gap on the Lions lead with two kills and an ace from Markus Trence (Hockley Valley, Ont.). Unfortunately, the Gaels were unable to catch the Lions lead and lost the set by a score of 25-21.

The Gaels took the first point of the second set on an error made by York. Peckham and Trence sent unreachable kills at the York defence, giving the Gaels an early lead. The Lions shut down Trence's kills and closed the gap to just one point, but Trence found an opening to start the Gaels momentum again. The Tricolour lengthened their lead again off York's errors and kills from Peckham. Malcolm Prentice (Oakville, Ont.) with a hard block sent the Gaels to set point, and a Trence kill ended the set at 25-15 for Queen's.

The third set of the game started in the Gaels favour, with the Tricolour taking an early lead. The Lions matched the Gaels at the 17th point and again at the 20th, and it remained an even game until York broke the tie with a killer block in the extended set. The set ended with a score of 31-29 for the Lions.

The Gaels kept up the intensity coming into the fourth set. Prentice had several hard kills helping the Gaels to a 7-point lead. Prentice and Trence played an extremely strong offensive set, keeping the Gaels in the lead. The Tricolour played fantastic defence keeping the Lions trailing for most of the set. Jack Peckham set the tone with a killer hit on the York Lions. Trence and Prentice sent a block down to reach set point, and a net violation for the Lions evened the match at 2-2. The final score of the set was 25-22 for the Gaels.

The Gaels trailed the Lions out of the gate in the fifth set, but a Trence kill picked up the Queen's intensity. Some unlucky tips put Queen's down by two with a score of 6-4, but the Gaels continued to fight for points. Digs by Lukas Kaufman (Stratford, Ont.) kept the rallies going and helped Queen's stay in the final set. Trence picked up a kill and a block closing the gap on the York lead of 11-9. The Gaels fought to catch the York lead, but the Lions continued to make kills to make the score 14-12. A block for Jack Peckham and a kill for Joel Rudd (Cambridge, Ont.) kept the Gaels in the game and extended the set. After trading points back and forth it was a York kill followed by a Queen's error that ended the game 3-2 for the Lions. The final score of the set was 20-18 for York.

BY THE NUMBERS
9 – blocks for Malcolm Prentice
14 – digs for Lukas Kaufman
27 - kills accumulated by Markus Trence in the five-set match

FINAL SAY
"I think we played really well throughout all the sets and had a great game as a team but when it came down to the last couple points, we weren't as aggressive as we needed to be to win this game. " - Markus Trence

UP NEXT
The Gaels take on the Guelph Gryphons on November 10th at 8 pm in the Queen's ARC in Kingston.