The Queen's Gaels swept the Trent Excalibur 3-0 for the second night in a row on Saturday at home. Leading the Gaels offense was fourth year outside hitter Nikola Mitrovic (Economics) with 12 kills, 2 service aces, and 5 digs. Fourth year setter Chris Zimmerman (Arts) was consistent with 29 assists and 2 kills. Third year outside hitter Ben Carr (Arts & Science) had a strong performance with 8 kills, 2 service aces, and 7 digs. The Gaels demonstrated great depth, with four players each making two service aces in the game.
The Gaels connected well early on and displayed incredible depth with huge kills coming from Carr, Izaak Zabjek (Kinesiology), Reed Venning (Arts & Science), and Alex Brdarevic (Engineering). After last night's sweep, the Gaels came into the game with momentum. However, the Excalibur held strong, not allowing the home team to find a substantial lead early on. After a service ace by Carr, the Gaels sat at a 19-11 lead after slowly distancing themselves on the scoreboard. A solo block from Zabjek brought Queen's the 25th point in a 25-13 win for the first set.
Trent found their first lead of the game at the beginning of the second set, as they went up 4-2. Venning made a service ace early on, slowing the Excalibur momentum. Setter Zimmerman stood tall at the net and earned themselves a kill, thrilling the home team. The Excalibur challenged the Gaels for the first time this weekend, matching them point for point and tying up to 11-11. Back-to-back kills from Mitrovic fired up the Queen's bench, and Venning directly followed up with a service ace to find a slight 14-11 lead. The teams exchanged points, and Queen's reached set point with a four-point lead. Despite this, the Gaels struggled with three errors, closing their lead to one at 24-23. This forced Queen's to use their first timeout of the game to regroup. The Gaels remained composed, returning from the timeout and scoring the 25th point off a block by Brdarevic to win 25-23.
After a closely matched second set, the Gaels came out firing in the third. A seven-point streak, including two service aces from Mitrovic, brought the Gaels an early 8-1 lead. Carr picked up their second service ace of the game midway through the final set as Queen's tore away with the lead. Back-to-back kills by Zabjek brought the home team lead to 18-5, and the Gaels looked composed as they rolled their offense. The game finished with a kill by Mitrovic from Zimmerman, winning the final set 25-10 to sweep the Excalibur for the second time this weekend.
Up next, the Gaels will match up against the TMU Bold on the road on November 6th at 6pm. The Gaels improve their undefeated record to 4-0 and will hope to pick up their first road win of the season on Thursday.
