The Windsor Lancers men's volleyball team travelled up the 401 East to Kingston on Friday afternoon to prepare for a Saturday night Leap Year quarter final marquee matchup against the 2019 OUA Forsyth Cup defending champion Queen's Gaels at the Athletics and Recreation Centre in Kingston, Ontario.  
 
Coming into the match, the Lancers were ranked 3rd in the OUA West division (10-7) while the Gaels were ranked 2nd in the OUA East division (14-4) which made for an interesting crossover quarter final matchup given both teams each medaled last season at Queen's with Windsor capturing bronze while the Gaels claimed the gold. 
 
However, despite the history from last season's success, the Lancers dropped a 3-0 (25-23, 25-20, 25-21) decision to the host Gaels which ended their season on the road as well as the five-year OUA careers of Brad Gyemi and Roland Bouchard in front of a raucous Queen's crowd at the ARC. 
 
GAME STATS
Pierce Johnson led the way offensively for the blue and gold posting 12 kills on the night while Gyemi added 8 of his own in his last game as a member of the blue and gold.  Dami Alalade also pitched in with 7 kills, 4 block assists, and 4 digs on the evening playing a solid all-around game despite his team's losing cause.  The Lancers setter, Nolan Langley, had 28 assists in the Lancers season-ending loss. 
 
The Queen's Gaels were led offensively by fifth-year hometown veteran Zac Hutcheson who put away 12 kills in his team's win at home while fellow fifth-year vet Adam Boljkovac recorded 11 on the night.  The Gaels setter Zane Grossinger ended the game with 32 assists to help his team advance to the OUA Final Four being hosted by the McMaster Marauders in Hamilton next weekend. 
 
GAME FLOW
In the first set, both teams battled hard out of the gate as neither team wanted the other to gain a lopsided advantage.  The biggest point-spread margin of the set was held by Queen's being a three-point lead.  The Gaels would thrive off of the Lancers errors from the service line to edge them out 25-23 in the opening set and go up 1-0 in the match. Despite a disappointing first set loss, the Lancers managed to have 13 ties throughout the set challenging the Gaels making it difficult for them and not allowing much room for error.  
 
In the second set, the set began very similarly to the first as both teams did not allow for much room for error and comfortability was certainly limited on both sides.  Both the tri-colour and blue and gold did a good job of limiting one another's gaps on the scoreboard and consistently put forth a solid effort.  Both teams exchanged the leads and knotted up with one another 7 times in the set making things extremely close down the stretch.  However, consistent play by the Gaels and piling service errors by the Lancers resulted in Queen's taking the second set 25-20 and going up 2-0 in the match pushing Windsor to the brink. 
 
In the third set, the Lancers jumped out of the gate with a 5-2 lead.  However, a resilient Gaels squad did not want to fall in front of their home fans and put on quite a show to comeback and tie things up early on in the set.  This set featured 7 ties as well when it was all said in done.  The Lancers would beat the Gaels to the technical timeout for the first and only time in the match going up 16-14 at the midway mark off a kill by Gyemi.  In the end though, the Gaels overcame the deficit and held onto the lead despite valiant effort.  The Gaels managed to close out the third set 25-21 and take the match in straight sets to end the blue and gold's season and more importantly for them advance to the OUA Final Four next weekend in Hamilton for a chance to defend their title. 
 
UP NEXT
The Lancers have now been eliminated from the OUA playoffs and will now head into the off-season looking towards restocking the program for next season.  A plethora of players are eligible to return next season as well as many other new talents are expected to join the program for next fall.  The future of blue and gold volleyball is very bright for both the men's and women's teams respectively. 
 
At this time the Windsor Lancers would like to wish fifth-year graduating seniors Roland Bouchard and Brad Gyemi all the best in their future endeavours and also graciously thank them for their commitment to the program over the last five seasons.  Furthermore, the Lancers would also like all of our fans for supporting our men's volleyball team and all of our athletics this season and we look forward to hopefully seeing everyone back around the St. Denis Centre and Dennis Fairall Fieldhouse for the 2020-21 season!