Queen's Men's Rugby opened the 2024 Canadian University Men's Rugby Championship (CUMRC) with a 26-24 win over the Victoria Vikes Wednesday afternoon in Ottawa, Ont.

The Gaels, who entered the national championship tournament as the No. 6 seed, upset the the No. 3 seed Vikes to advance to the semifinals.

Marcus D'Acre (Economics) opened the scoring for Queen's in a back and forth contest throughout.

The teams traded tries throughout the first half, with the Gaels taking a two-point lead into half time. Daniel Svoboda (Kinesiology) and Trekker James (Psychology) also scored for Queen's in the first half with D'Acre adding two converts.

Queen's and Victoria also traded tries in the second half, with Kwame Skerritt-Williams finding the try zone for the Gaels.

The Gaels held on for the hard-fought two-point win to advance to the championship side of the bracket.

Connor Gittens (Commerce) was named Player of the Game for Queen's in the win.

Queen's will be back on the pitch on Friday with a spot in the championship game on the line.