On Friday, the York University Lions men's volleyball team defeated the RMC Paladins in a 3-0 sweep to end their final game of calendar year at the Tait McKenzie Centre.
 
In the first set, the Lions came out with a service ace from Aleksander Grzegorczyk. They continued to widen their lead with a kill from Andriy Sozanskyy, followed by a kill from Andrew Shotbolt. The Paladins got a kill of their own from Justin Benoit, but the Lions answered back with another kill, this time from Andrew Tauhid. Lions Dan Everton scored an excellent service ace to widen the lead, followed by a quick kill from Shotbolt and a kill from Tauhid to close the first set 25-16.
 
The Lions continued to lead as they had a magnificent block from Shotbolt and Toure Nwakwesi, followed by a stable block from Tauhid. The score was 6-0 for the Lions when the Paladins finally got on the scoreboard from a Lions error. But the point didn't faze the Lions as they continued to blow past the Paladins, widening their lead to six points with a kill from Grzegorczyk. The Paladins were still alive in the game and attempted to close the gap making it a four-point game 13-9 for the Lions. The Paladins were starting to come back, but then they were met with two secure kills from Kirsten Duncan-Thibault with another one from Nwakwesi to widen the score even more as the Lions closed the set 25-16.
 
In the third set, the Paladins got on the scoreboard first for the first time in the game from a Lions error. Nwakwesi had a thundering kill to pick up a point for the Lions. Later on in the set, the Lions defence began to falter, and the Paladins saw the opportunity to tie. Still, the Lions regained their solid defence and ran away with the lead for the majority of the match and ended 25-18.
 
Grzegorczyk played a fantastic game and led the team with the most points with 12, followed by Nwakwesi with 11 and Duncan-Thibault with 10.
 
The Lions play their first game of the new year on Jan. 11 at home against the Waterloo Warriors at 3pm at the Tait McKenzie Centre.