AROUND OUA: Lions look strong in sweep of Paladins

SCOREBOARD

York 3 @ RMC 0

Nipissing 0 @ Queen's 3

Toronto 0 @ Waterloo 3

Lions look strong in sweep of Paladins

The York University Lions men's volleyball squad swept the RMC Paladins in straight sets on Saturday afternoon (Jan.23) in Kingston Ont.

The Lions play on the defensive front was stellar on Saturday, as they totaled 15 blocks compared to the Paladins three. The block party was led by Arthur Szwarc (Toronto) and Alexander Duncan-Thibault (Scarborough), as they both finished with a game high five blocks.

The first set was controlled by the Lions as they got out to a quick lead and never looked back, taking the first set 25-11. Szwarc led the Lions in their offense attack totalling 12 points and four kills.

The second set was more competitive than the first, as the Paladins began to apply pressure on the Lions. Adam Lupton of the Paladins led his side to a 25-25 second set, but the Paladin comeback would be halted as the Lions proved to be superior and took the second set 29-27.

The high flying Tyler Covach (Kitchener, Ont.) continued his aerial attack on the competition as he finished with team high eight kills.

The Lions mixture of strong defense and offense throughout the match continued in the third and final set, as they quickly ended the match with an impressive 25-13 win. After Saturday's win the Lions improve to 7-9 which places them comfortably in the middle of the OUA standings. The RMC Paladins have now lost thirteen straight matches and remain winless this season.

The Lions are back in action February 6^th when they travel to London to take on the 6-6 Western Mustangs. 

Source: York Lions

Tomlinson leads the Gaels in second consecutive 3-0 sweep of the weekend

KINGSTON, Ont. (January 23, 2016) – The No. 8 Gaels (10-3) finished up their home weekend with another three set sweep (25-19, 25-21, 25-23), last night against the York Lions and this time against the Nipissing Lakers (5-10).

Leading the Gaels in their win was veteran Mike Tomlinson (Stratford, Ont.) who smacked down 16 kills off an efficiency of 0.462. Scott Brunet (Calgary) was another key player, finishing with 10 kills on a 0.692 percentage and putting down a serving ace. The Lakers saw strong performances by Lyndon Sonego who smacked down 14 kills and Steven Wood who scored six kills and digs a piece as well as a service ace.  

GAME FLOW
Queen's opened up their night with a handful of kills from Tomlinson right down the line that sent the Lakers scrambling as the Gaels grabbed the early lead. Finally settling down, Nipissing edged ahead of the Gaels to reach double digits before their hosts. The Gaels regained their lead to meet the technical timeout up by a three point margin. They succeeded in riding their momentum through the rest of the set with Marko Dakic (Mississauga, Ont.) slamming home a back court kill to end the set 25-19.

The teams traded points in the second set with Nipissing getting ahead only to have Queen's steal a two point lead of their own. Nipissing responded and took their first timeout of the set which caused the Gaels to drop a point off a service error, yet the No. 8 team stayed ahead to lead 16-14 at the break. The Gaels took the 20 point turn first and despite back-to-back kills from their opponents, won their second set 25-21.

The first point belonged to the Gaels in the final frame with a pair of service aces from Dakic handing the Gaels a three point advantage over the Lakers. The teams stayed close with four tied scores before the Gaels met the technical timeout matching their second set lead of 16-14. Queen's took off from the break with four consecutive points pushing Nipissing coach Eric Yung to call a timeout. The Lakers came right up on their heels as the Gaels met the match point up by only one. With a deep back court kill from Tyler Scheerhoorn (Belleville, Ont.) the Gaels finished off their weekend with another 3-0 victory.

FINAL SAY?
"The Ryerson game next week will be a big test," said head coach Brenda Willis. "I think we're playing well. Jamie Wright is almost over his sprained ankle now and he's starting to move much better. He ran a good offence today and as a result our efficiency was quite high. We served very aggressively and Nipissing had a lot of trouble passing to their middles, which was part of our strategy. The fans were also great tonight and really helped us out."

BY THE NUMBERS
0.387 – The Queen's efficiency in their win.
36 – Assists by setter Wright.
2 – Queen's only gave away two errors in the second set.
3 – The Gaels go 2-1 in their last three matches.

UP NEXT
The No. 8 Gaels will head to Toronto next weekend where they will meet up with the Varsity Blues and the No. 10 Ryerson Rams. Queen's is scheduled to play the Blues at 8:00 pm on Friday, January 29.

Source: Queen's Gaels

Warriors get past Blues in straight sets for fourth consecutive win

The visiting Toronto Varsity Blues put up a good fight but could not take a set off the red hot Warriors who won their fourth straight.  Waterloo took the match 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-23) and improved to 7-8 on the season.  The loss dropped the Blues to 7-6.

Aidan Simone (London) was once again a go to target for Gibson Graham (Markham) and Simone was merely unstoppable with 12 kills on just 21 attempts. Simone was also stellar defensively with three blocks and nine digs.  Also chipping in on the offence was Braden Cok (Waterloo) and Jordan McConkey (Stratford) who each tallied six kills.  

Graham and McConkey were also key from the service line with two aces each.  Erich Woolley (New Dundee) finished with six digs which gives him 148 on the season good for second most in the OUA.  Woolley made an incredible dig with the shoulder that can be seen here.
For Toronto it was William Colluci providing most of the offence with 11 kills.  Zia Karim also had a strong game for the visitors with eight kills.  

Waterloo will have next weekend off before returning to the PAC in February for a pair of games against RMC (Feb. 5) and Queen's (Feb. 6).

Source: Waterloo Warriors