The 2009 Ontario University Athletics (OUA) women’s volleyball post-season gets underway this weekend with four quarter-final games on the schedule. The York Lions will host the Queen’s University Gaels in one of those contests on Saturday, Feb. 14 at 2pm at the Tait McKenzie Centre on York’s Keele campus.
The No. 9 nationally ranked Lions are the No. 1 seed in the OUA East Division after posting a stellar 18-1 record in conference play this season. Meanwhile, the Gaels finished fourth in the division with a 10-9 record.
In three meetings between these two teams earlier this season, the Lions went 3-0 and won nine of the 11 sets played. York posted a 3-1 victory at the annual York Classic tournament in October and then won both conference matches, first crushing Queen’s 3-0 in Kingston, Ont. before winning 3-1 on home court.
The last time York and Queen’s met in the playoffs was five seasons ago, when the second-seeded Gaels defeated the third-seeded Lions 3-2 in an OUA quarter-final match en route to a fourth-place finish.
A win over Queen’s on Saturday afternoon will lift the Lions to the OUA Final Four tournament for the first time in four seasons, where they will have a chance to battle for their first OUA championship since 1997. As a result of their 18-1 record, the best in the league, the Lions will host the OUA semifinals and championship matches the following weekend should they advance that far.