CIS men's volleyball Sunday roundup

Source: UNB Sports Info

The UNB Varsity Reds men's volleyball team got 2015 off to a good start, winning their second game against the Memorial Sea-Hawks in straight sets (25-23, 25-17, 25-13) and sweeping Think Pink weekend at the Richard J. CURRIE CENTER.

UNB won yesterday's game between the two teams in straight sets as well (25-17, 25-18, 25-17) and move to a record of 6-6. Memorial remains without a win in twelve games this season.

Memorial came out strong and led for the majority of the first set. But a few attack errors and a kill from V-Red Craig Toonders gave UNB a late edge in points and momentum, and they went on to take the set 25-23.

The Varsity Reds managed to keep that momentum on their side for the rest of the game and would take the next two sets, each with a higher level of confidence.

Leading the charge for Memorial was Liam Power with 11 points and Tyler Roswell with 10.5 points including nine kills. Leading scoring for UNB was Pascal McCarthy with 12 points and with 11.

Subway Player of the Game was awarded to UNB's Marc White who had 9.5 points including eight kills and four digs. White says it felt good to come out and play a bit stronger after having some slow starts yesterday.

"We weren't quite as sharp yesterday as we wanted to be," he said. "So it was nice to come out today and play a little bit better."

According to White, that improvement can be chalked up to two things: intensity and defence.

"We let a lot of balls fall yesterday and made a lot of errors on our side of the net, so we were trying to clean that up today."

As the second half of the season kicks off, the Varsity Reds turn their focus to a singular goal - doing well at playoffs. White says he's confident the V-Reds can do well, as long as they put in the effort.

"We just gotta keep working," he said. "Gotta come to practice ready to work. Go to the gym when you've gotta go to the gym. And take care of business."

The Varsity Reds and the Sea-Hawks play next on Friday, January 16, when they head to Laval for the third Interlock.

Source: Shawn MacDonald, Queen's Sports Information Officer

KINGSTON, Ont. – This Sunday the Gaels (8-4) continued their five-game winning streak as they defeated the York Lions (7-5) in a three set sweep, 25-12, 26-24 and 26-24.
 
Will Hoey (Brampton, Ont.) set the tone for the match as he opened and closed the scoring for the Gaels in the first set.  Queen's took advantage of Yorks over eager attacks and responded with their own successful attacks.  Hoey and Mike Tomlinson (Stratford, Ont.) brought the set to game point with an assisted block, shutting down the Lions attack and allowing Hoey to finish the set off for the Gaels 25-12.
 
Yorks Josh Henderson opened the scoring in the second set with a cross-court kill Queen's was unable to control.  Tomlinson and Tyler Scheerhorn (Belleville, Ont.) made trouble for York and caught them off guard with their powerful serves.  The Gaels managed to pull away from York at the seven-point mark but a four-point streak by the Lions brought the game neck and neck as it was tied at 21-21.  Both teams fought hard and a serving error by the Gaels tied the score up again at 24-24.  Back-to-back kills by Philippe Goyer (Ottawa) and Tomlinson gave Queen's the win over the Lions in the second set.
 
In the final set both teams fought hard and dug deep to provide the crowd with some exciting rallies but the Gaels managed to open the scoring with an attack from Hoey.  Scoring went back and forth between the two teams right up until the tied 24-point mark where two strategic blocks by the Gaels stopped the Lions attack, giving Queen's the match again at 26-24.
 
The leading scorers for the Gaels were Goyer and Tomlinson.  Goyer had 13 kills and one serving ace while Tomlinson had 10 kills with one serving ace.  The top scorer in today's match was the York Lions Ray Szeto with the game high of 17 kills.   Queen's put in a tremendous effort on defence this afternoon with a total of 11 team blocks to successfully shutdown the Lions attacks.
 
The Gaels are back in action next Saturday at 7pm against the Paladins at RMC.

Source: Windsor Sports Info

The Lancer men's volleyball team was swept 3-0 (11-25, 23-25, 17-25) by the No. 2 ranked McMaster Marauders on Sunday afternoon at the St. Denis Centre.
 
With the loss, the Lancers fall to 4-8 on the season, while the Marauders improve to 11-1 and remain in first place in the OUA.
 
The Marauders dominated the Lancers on both sides of the ball in the first set with 10 blocks and 10 kills. In the second, Windsor made many strategic changes, including add a three man block, to help lessen the success of the Marauder attack.
 
Multiple errors from the Marauders allowed the Lancers to take the lead for the first time in the second set, however were unable to secure the set win. In the third set, the Lancers did not lower their game and keep up team moral, but McMaster still took the set and secured the game after many long rallies.
 
Windsor was led by Gabriel Burlacu with nine kills and five digs, and Greg Simone with eight.
 
Andrew Richards led the visiting Marauders with 10 kills, while Danny Demyanenko contributed eight kills.
 
The Lancers will take to the court again next weekend when they host the Ryerson Rams on Friday night and the Toronto Varsity Blues on Saturday. Both games are slated for 8:00pm at the St. Denis Centre and can be seen live at www.oua.tv.