Box Score It was a battle of attrition tonight as the Warriors hosted the Queen's Gaels (4-3) at the PAC on Friday evening. An evenly matched contest saw Queen's defeat Waterloo 3-1 (15-25, 25-20, 21-25, 23-25) in a match that could have gone either way. The Warriors were led by
Sammie Gwozdz (Waterloo) who had 13 kills, 12 digs and 5 blocks and now move to 1-7 on the campaign.
Queen's came out flying in the first set and looked poised to walk over the Warriors, jumping out to a 7-1 lead in the first set. Waterloo could not muster a steady offence and were getting outplayed on the defensive side of the ball. The Warriors trailed 16-9 at the technical timeout and eventually lost the opening set in lopsided fashion 25-15.
The black and gold were not going to lay over and looked like a team renewed in the second set. Waterloo's passing game improved tremendously which allowed
Emily Needles (Thorndale) to run her offence and put her team back in control. The Warriors fought for a 7-5 lead and extended that to a 21-16 lead, forcing Queen's into a timeout. Both sides would exchange points to close out the set which saw Waterloo win 25-20 and knot the match at one game each.
Back and forth action in the third set led to a 14-11 lead for Queen's, but captain
Natasha Spaling (Drayton) scored a statement kill to cut the lead to two. The Gaels led 16-13 at the technical timeout before Waterloo would score 7 of the next 11 points to tie the game at 20-20. Queen's Brett Hagarty would serve tough and score the next three straight points for the Gaels before eventually winning the set 25-21 and taking a 2-1 lead.
Both teams looked determined to emerge victorious in the fourth set and neither time could pull away as they opened the set tied 5-5. Long rallies proved costly for the Warriors as some unforced errors saw them trailing 16-13 at the technical timeout. Waterloo shortened the gap to 22-21 but would come up just short and lose the set 25-23. Queen's won the match 3-1 in what was a very entertaining affair.
Waterloo was led by Gwozdz as well as rookie
Claire Mackenzie (Vancouver) who registered 12 kills, 1 service ace and 13 digs in the loss. Needles scored 34 assists, 6 digs and 2 services aces in the defeat.
Leading the way for Queen's was Hagarty who had 12 kills, 17 digs and a solo block whileShannon Neville had 11 kills, 13 digs and one block. Ali Shamie and Danielle Blumentrath combined for 40 assists 3 digs in the victory.
Waterloo now has a lengthy break and will travel to Ryerson on November 23
rd for an afternoon contest against the Rams. You can catch the game on OUA TV.
