Varsity Reds Dethrone Queen's

KINGSTON, Ont. (October 14, 2011) – At the Queen’s University “Coast to Coast” tournament, the UNB Varsity Reds shocked the host Queen's Gaels by a 3-1 margin. Set scores were 24-26, 28-26, 25-21, and 25-23.

Second year middle, Brett LeDrew, of Clarenville, Nfld. was named player of the game for the Varsity Reds while of Stratford, Ont. took home the honour for the Gaels. LeDrew was solid coming off the bench both offensively and defensively, posting a .333 kill percentage to go with his single dig and three blocks. Mike Tomlinson was the Gaels' star on the evening as he posted a game high 18 kills at a .300 efficiency rate, and added four digs and a block to his stat line. 

UNB had chances to win in the first set, but made similar execution errors late in the set as they had in their home matches against UBC earlier this week, to lose 24-26.  UNB would rebound in the second, with aggressive serving and blocking to even the match.  The Varsity Reds seemed to find their stride in the third, and continued to roll in the fourth, until Queen’s pushed back to take a 21-20 lead late.  Just when it looked like the Gaels would force a fifth, two monster blocks by LeDrew would be enough to change the flow, allowing the Varsity Reds to play the spoiler against one of the OUA’s toughest teams.

With the win UNB moves on to play the Alberta Golden Bears, who beat Western 3-0, in the second semi-final match on Saturday at 8:00pm.   The other semi-final features the UBC Thunderbirds against the Calgary Dinos  at 6:00pm.

 COACH’S COMMENTS

 “I was pleased with the way we battled tonight against a tough opponent in their home gym.  Queen’s will be hosting the CIS Championships in March, so this is being run with in the same format, meaning each match is critical.  It was good for us to get our first win of the year.  Tomorrow’s match will be an even bigger test for us as Alberta is another top four team in the country.”