Files from TWU Sports Information
LANGLEY, BC – It took five sets, and a long five sets at that, but the Queen's Gaels finally got past a feisty, never-quit UBC team 3-2 (25-21, 22-25, 23-25, 25-22, 15-11) in the bronze medal game at the Spartans Holiday Classic Wednesday night.
Trailing 2-1 in sets, Queen's fought back with a strong fourth set and completed the rally in the fifth when Bryan Fautley iced the game with the final kill.
"It was a very interesting match versus Queen's tonight. Our performance was similar to our first two games this week in that we played from behind a lot but were able pull through in a number of sets," said UBC head coach
Richard Schick.
"We've shown that we are an extremely feisty team when we serve aggressively and set up our block and back court defence. We transitioned a lot of balls tonight and with a few better decisions from our hitters, we probably could have pulled out a four set win tonight rather than a five set loss."
With a flight to catch to go home immediately after the game, Queen's came out in the opening set hoping to take the bronze medal in quick fashion. And in the first set, it looked like that might be the case. The Gaels scored the first two points of the match and never trailed throughout the first set. Although UBC showed some grit in hanging around with Queen's, they were never able to snatch momentum entirely.
The momentum turned in the second set in a big way when the T-Birds stormed out to a 6-1 lead and looked to be en route to tying the match. But with UBC up by what turned out to be a not so comfortable six points 17-11, the Gaels went on an 8-1 streak to reset the game 18-18. With the second set down to a race to seven points, UBC swung back and won the battle 7-4, thanks in large part to a pair of kills from
Tanner Kozak.
The third set broke open when Queen's, already up 12-11, went on a 6-1 run to open up a sizable gap. But shortly thereafter, UBC got right back in it, then went ahead and then took the whole thing. With the score 21-16, the T-Birds went on a 9-2 run to win 25-23, a stretch that was headlined by Kozak scoring four of UBC's last five points.
In the fourth frame, another tight set ensued but one that UBC was seemingly always trailing but Queen's just couldn't pull away. The T-Birds had only two leads, at 2-1 and 13-12, and throughout it was the Gaels game to lose. Zeeman had another six kills for Queen's to help them to a 25-22 win, while UBC struggled to attack with a game-low 5.9 per cent hitting.
In the fifth and deciding set, Queen's sprung out to a 4-0 before UBC took a timeout to slow the Gaels momentum. Coming out of the timeout, UBC went on a 6-1 run to take the lead for the first time in the set. But right after, Queen's replied with a 5-1 run to take the lead and push it to 10-7, eventually leading to a 15-11 win.
For Queen's, it was Zeeman with 20 kills and Fautley with 13. Jackson Dakin led the team with 27 assists and nine digs. Michael Amoroso had a game-high eight blocks.
The T-Birds were led by Kozak, who finished with 17 kills, and
Ben Chow, who had 16 kills.
Ian Perry had 43 assists and
Blair Bann registered 14 digs.
With outside hitters
Milo Warren (injury) and
Robert Bennett (illness) still out of the line-up, Schick has been impressed with Kozak's inspired play.
"Tanner really stepped up this past week and showed the flair he's shown in the past from both the front and back row attacking as well as being a real threat from the service line," noted Schick.
UBC returns to the court for league play on January 14-15 on the road against the defending national champion Calgary Dinos. Schick took a lot of positives away from this weekend but knows his team will have to be sharper to win on the road against one of the top teams in the nation.
"Overall these three matches allowed us, or forced us [because of injury], to play a number of different guys in a number of different situations. I think it was a very valuable experience for our group. In each match we had a number of guys that statted well but as a group we have to be better, taking care of the little things as well as our execution in what we've practiced."
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