The York University Lions men's volleyball team closed the regular season with a straight-sets win over the Toronto Varsity Blues at the Tait McKenzie Centre on Sunday afternoon.
The Lions had already clinched the second seed in the OUA East Division with a 12-6 record regardless of how Sunday's match finished, and the Blues had already been eliminated from the playoffs.
Like the women's team did earlier in the day, the Varsity Blues got off to a strong start, earning three points before the Lions earned their first on a Varsity Blues' service error.
Logan Mend followed this up with a service ace to put the Lions just behind at 3-2. The Lions continued to bounce back and forth between leading and trailing. At the technical timeout they were leading 16-14.
The Lions picked up the pace after the timeout and the Varsity Blues could not keep up. The Lions won the first set 25-18.
The second set opened with the Varsity Blues leading once again, but like the previous set, this didn't last long. The Lions raced ahead to a seven-point lead by the technical timeout at 16-9 and went on to easily win 25-12.
Heading into the third set, the Lions had a 2-0 lead in the match. By the technical timeout, it looked like the Lions were going to make it 3-0 since they were leading once again 16-12. The Varsity Blues put up a tougher fight, but ultimately couldn't surpass the Lions, who claimed the set 25-21 and the match 3-0.
Leading the Lions to their victory was
Andrew Shotbolt with 18 points (16 kills, one service ace, two assisted blocks), followed by
Spencer Dakin Kuiper with 13.5 (seven kills, four solo blocks, four assisted blocks).
Tim Jensen led the team in digs with eight followed closely by Shotbolt with seven.
On the Varsity Blues' side, Ryan Smith earned the most points at seven, comprised completely of kills. Alex Barnes and Daniel Tudor had the most digs with five apiece.
The Lions will host an OUA quarter-final game against the third seeds from the OUA West Division, the Windsor Lancers, next Saturday afternoon at the Tait McKenzie with a berth in the Final Four championships on the line.
