GUELPH, ON – The Gryphons were unable to find the answer to the front row of the No. 8-ranked Queen's Gaels, falling in straight sets (17-25, 18-25 & 20-25) on Friday night at the W.F. Mitchell Athletics Centre. With the loss, the Gryphons fall to 4-11 on the season and sit in 10th place in the OUA standings while the Gaels improve to 12-4 and move into a tie for second in the OUA.
Josh Green led the Gryphons on the night with 10 kills and 2 aces while
Dallas Keith and
Luke Woud each had 8 kills of their own.
The front row of Queen's played a major role in their victory tonight as they had a total 10 blocks throughout the night as they tipped and altered a lot of shots at the point of Guelph's attack. The Gael's hitting efficiency for the night was also impressive at .437% while only committing 10 errors for the entire match. Mike Tomlinson led all players with 12 kills in the match.
The Gryphons were facing their third straight ranked opponent in the CIS Top 10 and held their own early on as they kept the Queen's lead at two to three-points. Then the visitors would take control of the set winning 8 of the next 10 points and turned a close 13-10 set into comfortable 21-12 led by the front row of the Gaels.
Guelph looked like they were going to make a run of their own after three attack errors from the Gaels as they slowly gotten momentum back on their side. Queen's would rely on Tomlinson with a kill to make it 22-15 and he would clinch the final point of the set for Queens at 25-17.
The second set early was tight early before it became a set of runs. The Gaels would make their first big run when the hosts would take 6-5 lead as they would take 9 of the next 12 points to grab a 14-8 lead. The Gryphons would go on a little run of their own taking 5 of the next 7 points to get within 3 points. The pivotal point of the set would come off of Dallas Keith's serve as it hooked left and went out giving Queen's a 17-13 lead and a start of another run taking 7 of the next 9 points to extend their lead to 24-15. Guelph had one more run in them taking the next three points before Scott Brunet's kill would seal a 25-18 set for the Gaels.
Queen's would jump on the Gryphons early in the third set going ahead 12-4 and cruising to a straight sets victory however, Guelph had other ideas. The hosts would battle back from that deficit taking 11 of the next 15 points aided by three attack errors from off the serve
Terry Pham. The Gryphons would get within one at 16-15 as they kept Queen's within striking distance before the Gaels pulled away late taking 4 of the last 5 points just when Guelph got to 21-19 as it looked like the hosts were about to make their move. Two errors and two points from Tyler Scheerhoorn later, Queen's would close out the set 25-20 and the match in straight sets.
The Gryphons are back on the court tomorrow night at home as they look to end their five match winless streak against winless RMC Paladins. The match is scheduled to start at 6pm.
