The Queen's Gaels fell 3-0 against the Guelph Gryphons on Friday night at home. The Gaels offense was led by outside hitter Nikola Mitrovic (Economics) who made 12 kills and 7 digs. Second year setter Wyatt Hall (Arts & Science) supported the offense with 33 assists, while first year libero Carson Francis (Economics) made 7 digs. The home team struggled with their service errors, and despite putting more kills on the board as a team than the Gryphons, the Gaels fell narrowly in three sets.  

The Gaels found an early lead in the first set, going up 4-1, however, they were unable to hold their lead as they struggled with errors and allowed Guelph to tie the game up at 11-11. The teams continued to match each other up to 21-21, keeping the match close. Both sides struggled to settle in on the service line, resulting in many exchanges of service errors. As Queen's neared set point 23-21, they forced Guelph to take two timeouts late in the set. A late resurgence by the Gryphons overturned the slight Queen's lead, with the away team narrowly edging out the Gaels 26-24.  

The Gaels struggled to generate consistent offense at the start of the second set, allowing Guelph to find a small 8-5 lead. Queen's demonstrated their resilience, fighting back point by point to tie the game back up at 14-14 after a service ace from Izaak Zabjek (Kinesiology). The teams kept the match close, continuing to tie the game into extra points, 26-26. Ultimately, the Gryphons prevailed, taking the set narrowly 28-26.  

With the game on the line, the Gaels battled to extend the game to four sets. Zabjek picked up their second service ace of the game as the teams continued to exchange points and tie up to 8-8. The Gryphons found a small lead, forcing the Gaels to take a timeout when the away team began to distance themselves on the scoreboard. Queen's managed to pick up a kill from Ben Carr (Arts & Science) and Mitrovic after the timeout, however, Guelph quickly turned the momentum back into their favor. Queen's used their final timeout while Guelph held a 20-13 lead, in a final attempt to regroup and stay alive in the game. Despite their best efforts, the Gaels fell 25-16 in the final set.  

Up next, the Gaels will seek redemption as they rematch against the Gryphons tomorrow at 5:30pm at home. The Gaels move their record to 8-3 and will look to redeem themselves tomorrow night.