KINGSTON, Ont. – The Guelph Gryphons men's volleyball team on Friday night (Feb. 21) officially saw their season come to an end at the ARC Gymnasium in Kingston where they suffered a tough four set loss to the Queen's Gaels in the OUA quarterfinals. The Gryphons entered the OUA playoffs as the No. 7-seed after finishing the regular season with a 9-11 record as they took on the No. 2-seed Queen's Gaels who finished with a 15-5 record in the regular season.
 
The third set of this match proved to be turning point of the match. After both teams split the first two sets with the Gaels taking the first and the Gryphons responding and winning the second set, it would be the Gryphons who'd get off to a 6-1 run to open the third set as they carried over the momentum from the win in the previous set. Guelph built their advantage to seven points following a combo block from Nathan Peters and Cameron Chadwick as they'd take their largest lead in the set at 21-14 and forcing the Gaels to call a timeout. Unfortunately for the Gryphons, the timeout proved to be a rally killer as it halted their momentum and kickstarted the Gaels run. Queen's from that point forward, turned the set around winning nine straight points to take a 23-21 lead as Guelph trailed for the first time in the third. The Gryphons would stop the run there as two straight points got them back on level terms in the set. Both sides traded set points as the set needed someone to win by two points to take the ever so important 2-1 lead in the match. With the score at 27 all, Queen's would get back-to-back kills from Reed Venning and Alex Brdarevic to steal the set with the score of 29-27 as the Gryphons saw the third set slip away. In the following set, the Gaels got out a quick start taking a 6-2 lead. Guelph battled throughout the fourth set to get within one with a chance to tie it up but were unable to find the decisive point. Queen's led for the entire set, closing out the match winning three straight points to clinch the match with a 25-21 set win as they advance to the OUA semifinals in a tightly contested four set match.
 
Braeden Sears and Alexander Odle led the team with 14 kills each while Nathan Peters made his presence felt at the net as he finished the match with 5.0 total blocks, including 3 solo blocks.
 
With the result, Queen's advances to the OUA semifinals as they'll host the Western Mustangs on Friday night (Feb. 28) in Kingston, while the 2024-25 season for the Gryphons officially came to an end.