November 20: Guelph 2 – Queens 3 (25-21, 16-25, 16-25, 25-18, 10-15)

 

GUELPH – The Guelph Gryphon men's volleyball team suffered a narrow loss to the visiting undefeated Queen's Gaels this evening 3-2; with set scores of 25-21, 16-25, 16-25, 25-18, and 10-15. The loss puts Guelph's record at 5-3, while the Gaels record improves to 7-0.

 

In the first set, the Gaels would start strong making the first point, however Guelph would continue to gain momentum that would peak midway through the set. They would capitalize on Queen's errors, and bring Queens to their first set loss in two straight games with a score of 25-21. Queens would come back in the second set with a fury, and while the Gryphons would start with high-energy, they would begin to lose steam. This allowed the Queen's powerful offensive attack to overpower the Gryphons 16-25. In the third set, Guelph would sub in Patrick Strzalkowski (St. Catharines, Ont.) and Kyle Wilson (Stratford, Ont.) to fend off the Queen's offensive attacks. The team would produce moments of high energy, however their attack consistency would wane. The set would end in Queen's favour, 16-25. In the fourth set the Gryphons offence would come back strong with Winston Rosser's (Whitby, Ont.) unstoppable attacks, leaving the Gaels dumbfounded. Queen's defense would falter under Guelph's pressure, and this result in a score of 25-18 –tying up the game. Tensions would be high coming into the fifth set, where Queen's would not waver in their attacks, however Guelph would struggle to make passes and maintain possession of the ball. The result would be a win for Queen's with a final score of 10-15.

 

The Gryphons were led in scoring by Winston Rosser with 23 kills and one ace, and the Player of the Match, Andrew McWilliam with 9 kills and 3 aces. Riley McAllister would tally 32 assists and 10 digs throughout the game.

 

For the Queen's Gaels, Jackson Dakin would be named Player of the Match as he would tally 46 assists, four aces, two kills and eight digs. Led scorers for the Gaels would include Bryan Faultey (Oakville, Ont.) with 18 kills and Matthew Taylor (Toronto, Ont.) with 10 kills.

 

Up next the Gryphons play a pair of games in Toronto when they face York on Friday (Nov. 26 – 8pm) and Ryerson on Saturday (Nov. 27 – 7pm)

By: Catherine Norman