Gaels take down defending champs in OUA semifinal

LONDON, Ont. – The Queen’s Gaels (12-6) toppled the 2011 OUA champions, the McMaster (15-3) Marauders, in four sets tonight at Alumni Hall.

Set scores were 19-25, 25-23, 18-25 and 17-25.

McMaster opened the scoring in the first set with a service ace from T.J. Sanders. Queen’s put up a block to counter a Jori Mantha attack on the next play and did not relent. Down 4-8, McMaster was forced to call an early time out and by the technical break, Queen’s led 16-12. McMaster called their second timeout only two points later. Queen’s capitalized on a series of McMaster service errors and took the first set 25-19.

The Gaels and Marauders rallied back and forth to six in set two leading to an eventual win for the Marauders. At the technical timeout, the Marauders led 16-13. Points were won on smart play and huge blocks from Kevin Stevens and Mantha. A late service error on behalf of the Gaels gave the Marauders the final point they needed to take the set 25-23.

Queen’s and McMaster were pretty evenly matched the first half of the third set, but at the technical, Queen’s had pulled ahead slightly with a score of 16-13. They did not allow McMaster to regain the lead, winning the set 25-18 and going up two matches to one in the best of five.

The Gaels dominated the fourth and final set and headed into the technical ahead 16-10. The Marauders put up a set high of 12 kills, yet it was not enough to come back and push for a fifth. The Gaels completed the set 25-17 and the game 3-1.

Jeremy Groenveld and Kevin Stevens, both 2012 OUA Second-Team All-Stars led McMaster with 15 and 10 kills respectively.

OUA Player of the Year Joren Zeeman put up 23 points (21 kills, two service aces, 10 digs) for Queen’s.

Queen’s will be the first team to head into Saturday’s OUA Championship match at 7 p.m. at Alumni Hall.