Lancers enjoy spike in performance
Men’s volleyball team one win away from going to national championship
A very young University of Windsor Lancers men’s volleyball team has grown up quickly.
After back-to-back losing seasons, the Lancers have rebounded in a big way and now sit one win away from heading to the national championship.
“I can’t believe how much we’ve grown as a team,” said third-year Lancer Brad Gyemi, who plays right side. “We got our teeth kicked in my first and second year and now I’m seeing that same group of guys and we’ve developed so much now and are in position where we’re one of the strongest teams in the league.”
The Lancers will face the No. 10-ranked McMaster Marauders in Hamilton on Friday in one of two semifinals. Ryerson will face Queen’s in the other match. The winners automatically qualify for the U Sports championship. The losers will play for the bronze med- al and the third and final OUA spot at that championship.
“We’re very deserving of winning one of these two matches and going to nationals,” said Gyemi, who is a St. Anne high school product. “We’ve worked hard enough and we’re strong enough to get the job done.”
The Lancers have never qualified for the national championship. The team came close in 2015 when Windsor dropped a five-set match in the bronze-medal game after winning the first two sets. “I was on the bench, but wasn’t dressed and just spectating and cheering the team on,” said the Lancers’ John Moate, who was a redshirt freshman in 2015. “Watching that all kind of crumble is tough and not something I want to experience again.” Moate is the only player on the team with any taste of that 2015 game and was part of a 7-13 campaign in 2015-16 and a 5-12 season a year ago, but the club jumped back into the playoff picture this season with a 10-7 record.
“If you would have asked me in the summer if I could foresee this, probablynot,butthegrowth,”Lancers head coach James Gravelle said. “The growth came in skill. Where last year we were struggling to win a set, this year, in some matches, we would struggle to even lose a set. The players are more skilful, bigger, stronger and ready to win.” Gyemi caught a few of those Lancers games in 2015 when the team last went to the Final Four. “They didn’t have the biggest offensive weapons, which is kind of different from our team, but they played with a lot of heart and played good defence and won games that they weren’t expected to win,” Gyemi said. Windsor now has plenty of size to compete with the six-foot-eight Moate and Gyemi, who is six-footfive, along with six-foot-four Pierce Johnson, six-foot-five Mark Pineault, six-foot-four Dami Alalade, six-foot-two Roland Bouchard and freshman setter Nolan Langley. But it’s the perseverance of this team that has made it stand out this season. After letting set point slip away and losing the first set in last week’s road playoff game against York, the Lancers stormed back to win the final three sets and take the match.
“We’re a team that’s very resilient,” Gyemi said. “Even though we’re young, we were all getting experience on the court when we were younger. Now, in our second or third year, we’re kind of a midage group, and it’s good to see we have that resilience.
“It’s not just experience, but it’s more heart and belief. Belief in ourselves, belief in our training and belief in each other that we can get the job done.” Gravelle, who loses just one player to graduation this year, has been to this point as both a coach and a player with the Lancers, but he said there’s a different feeling this time.
“For us, it was a surprise to be there at that time and, because it was unexpected, we were just enjoying the experience,” Gravelle said of the team’s 2015 run. “With this group, the guys are looking for something bigger.