The Men’s Volleyball team continues to step in the right direction to defend their OUA title.
From Jan. 2 to 4, the Gaels travelled to Windsor to play in an exhibition tournament hosted by the Lancers. Joining them at this tournament were the Brock Badgers and University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO) Heat.
Head Coach Gabe deGroot explained the thinking behind the planning of the tournament in an interview with The Journal. “We try to bookend our season with an exhibition tournament at the host facility of the USports National Championship in hopes of obviously being there.” Last year the team travelled to Brandon, Saskatchewan at the beginning of the season with the same objective in mind.
The first game on Jan 2 was matched up against the Heat who are currently 11-1 and sit at the top of the Canada West standings. “The opportunity to play a team of that caliber and see how you match up against them is a positive “said deGroot. The Gael prevailed in a five-set thriller winning 3-2 in a best-on-best matchup.
Their second match featured Brock University, which deGroot said “was a good opportunity for our younger lineup to get some touches.” The young guns prevailed in another five set 3-2 victory. “We managed our roster in a way to see how our young guys look like and how they’re developing” he said.
In the third and final matchup against Windsor, the Gaels won in three straight sets to win 3-0. deGroot emphasized that these Christmas tournaments are always a bit hard to evaluate because of the month-long break. “Sometimes its more of getting our legs underneath us and getting in good form rather than evaluating how well we matchup, I think it was really good” deGroot said.
When asked about the overall sentiments of the season so far deGroot said that “were right where we want to be.” He continued to say that “We’ve played really well at times, its important to play clean and trust the process.” It is clear that the goal for this team is to continue to play at a high level in conquest for a national championship.
The Gaels Men’s volleyball team sits at the top of OUA Standings with an 8-2 record and sit seventh in USports rankings. They open up the second half of their season on Jan. 9 at the ARC against the Guelph Gryphons.
Tags
Gaels, Men's volleyball team, USports National Championship, Volleyball
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.