Gaels Emerge Victorious in Hard Fought Battle Against Western

Queen’s Women’s Volleyball completed their sweep of the Western Mustangs Saturday afternoon, securing a hard-fought four set win (19-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-21).

Prior to the game, the Gaels honoured graduating seniors Amanda Siksna (Education), Mary Stewart (Education), Hannah Duchesneau (Arts & Science), Aimee Lemire (Education), and Charley Baker (Arts & Science) for their contributions to the program.

“It’s a super special graduating group. They’ve all been here for five years and they’ve all left a significant impact.  They all bring something very unique and they’re all true leaders out there. We will deeply miss them,” Head Coach Shanice Marcelle said.

“I think they’ve taught me how much they love one another. Coming into this program as a new coach can be difficult but they’ve done a great job of welcoming me. I think the amount of love that we have in the gym is why this team is so successful,” Marcelle added.

Despite going down early in the first set, the Gaels demonstrated their resilience and recovered from a significant deficit to only drop the set by six points.

“Tonight felt really hard on our side of the floor. I think for us we struggled on our serve receive a little bit and it made it difficult for us to get into our rhythm with attacking,” Marcelle reflected.

Through the second, Queen’s and Western went point for point. The Gaels pivoted their attacks, using well placed tips to exploit weaknesses in Western’s defense.

Their creativity proved successful, and the Gaels bagged the second set.

“The biggest thing was that we stuck together, and I think that we didn’t let up at all. We knew what we had in us. We did a really great job at collecting ourselves,” Siksna said.

The third set followed much like the second, with neither team able to pull ahead. Claire Carter’s (Business) aggressive presence from the service line propelled Queen’s forward and a kill from Siksna secured the set.

The Gaels maintained strong service pressure through the fourth. They also maintain a strong defensive effort, with Libero Holly Biasi (Arts & Science) adding digs from all over the court.

Queen’s picked up the last four points and the set and secured their fifteenth victory of the season.

In the win, Duchesneau led the Gaels in points with 17. Carter added another 14 and Siksna accrued 11.5.

Collectively, the Gaels closed out the match with 46 kills and 20 assisted blocks.

The Gaels head to Hamilton to take on the McMaster Marauders on Friday, Feb. 7, at 6pm. Fans can catch the action on oua.tv.