No. 9 Gaels clinch spot in OUA Final Four with 3-0 sweep of York

KINGSTON, Ont. (February 27, 2016) – The No. 9 Gaels had a big afternoon on Saturday as they won 3-0 (25-20, 25-20, 25-18) over the York Lions in their OUA quarter-final playoff matchup at the Athletics and Recreation Centre (ARC).

With the win, the Gaels are headed to the OUA Final Four which will be hosted by the McMaster Marauders. Queen's will play a semifinal match against the No.10 Ryerson Rams while the other semifinal will feature McMaster against Waterloo.

As he has all season, Marko Dakic (Mississauga, Ont.) led the Gaels in their three set sweep of the Lions with 13 kills off a 50% efficiency, as well as picking up 10 digs and putting down a service ace. Mike Tomlinson (Stratford, Ont.) followed up his teammate with 10 kills, six digs and three block assists. Tallying 33 assists in the match, Queen's setter Jamie Wright (Kingston, Ont.) was another key player for the Gaels in their win, running the offence all afternoon.

On the York side of the action, Nicolas Pirnat smacked down 11 kills off a 0.476 efficiency to lead his teammates. Arthur Szwarc and Tyler Covach supported the Lions in the match with five kills apiece with Szwarc also adding two serving aces.

GAME FLOW
The hosts started off their night in the driver's seat as they put down the first point of the match before hitting a run to grab the early 9-3 lead. York managed to get some momentum started but with an ace from Tyler Scheerhoorn (Belleville, Ont.) found themselves back on their heels as the Gaels led 16-11 at the technical timeout.

Opening up the second half of the set, Tomlinson smacked down a big back court kill to maintain his team's momentum. The Lions didn't let the Gaels get too far ahead as they knocked off three in a row to slow the No. 9 team. It wasn't enough, however, to keep the Gaels from putting away the first set 25-20 and scoring a 1-0 advantage in front of a boisterous crowd in Kingston.

The second set was a closer campaign as the teams traded the early points with the Lions grabbing their first lead of the match at 4-3 and staying ahead of the Gaels into the double digits. Queen's kept close on their heels and with both a serving ace followed by a back court kill from Tomlinson, they found themselves back in the lead as they hit the technical timeout up 16-13.

Leaving the timeout the Gaels hit a five point run to pull farther ahead of their opponents only slowed by Szwarc who smacked down a kill to put the brakes on at the 20 point turn. Queen's kept ahead of the Lions and even with two dropped set points a service error from York handed them a second set win to go up 2-0.

Queen's dropped the first two points of the final frame before Scheerhoorn got them back in control with a deep kill heading up a six point run. York picked up their offence and caught the Gaels at seven points to tie the match, but Scott Brunet (Calgary) found the floor with a tip to get Queen's back in the lead.

By the technical the Gaels had doubled the Lions and continued to dominate as they started to take off with their lead. York fought to keep in the running, shrinking their deficit to 21-16 off five consecutive points and forcing the Gaels head coach Brenda Willis to call a timeout. Out of the timeout the Gaels put their heads down and pushed through the final points to sign their ticket to the OUA Final Four with a 25-18 final set score.

FINAL SAY
"I think congratulations goes out to Jamie Wright," said Brenda Willis. "He ran exactly the game plan we wanted him to and he distributed the ball really well. That's why we were over 40% efficiency which is really high. I also thought our block scheme worked very well to neutralize their middle completely. Our game plan was very effective and I was happy with that."

"We still have a little bit of work to do. We have to figure out who our next opponent is going to be; Ryerson or Western. But we're right back at it with a full session tomorrow and after that, we're just going to keep it going."

BY THE NUMBERS
0.545 – Queen's had the best efficiency of the match in the second set of OUA action.
8 – Team blocks by Queen's.
2012 - The last time Queen's was in the OUA Final Four where they came away with OUA gold
3 - Straight wins against York this season

UP NEXT
The No. 9 Gaels are now looking forward to the OUA Final Four where they will take Ryerson. The Final Four will be in Hamilton, Ontario hosted by the top seeded Marauders on Thursday, March 3 and 4th.

Source: Queen's Gaels