A big weekend upcoming for the University of Windsor Lancers men's volleyball team.
The No. 7 ranked Lancers will play in the OUA championship against the No. 3 ranked McMaster Marauders in Hamilton on Saturday.
Windsor punched its ticket with a 3-1 (25-27, 25-16, 25-20, 25-14) victory over the No. 9 ranked Toronto Varsity Blues last week at the Toldo Lancer Centre.
Head Coach James Gravelle says they're confident and really looking forward to the opportunity.
He says it's been an interesting journey because they didn't have a strong pre-season, but then things started to roll as the regular season progressed.
"We had some deficiencies in a few different phases including blocking and digging, but the team continues to improve and play at a higher level with each of the last four matches. And so I wouldn't say that I'm surprised necessarily but it's been very welcome to see the players playing their best right now," he said.
Gravelle says he has a very mature group of student athletes who are truly intrinsically motivated, and culture they've created so strong that often times the coaches just need to stay out of their way.
"Because the group knows what they need to do and how to do it. There's any number of leaders on the team, and so we have a lot of veteran players but we also have some of the younger players who are also leaders as well. So it's a well balanced team from a leadership perspective and it all just doesn't fall on one player."
He says the community support the team has felt has been great, but heading into Hamilton on the weekend will be a hostile environment.
"It's something that we grow accustomed to on the road within this league. It won't be anything new to our group, being a veteran group that has played in that gym before especially in an elimination match, but it's definitely a hostile crowd. So we'll discuss it but at this point in the season our team is battle tested and ready for the challenge," Gravelle stated.
The Forsyth Cup finals are set for Saturday, March 11 at 6:00 p.m.
The game will be broadcast live on oua.tv.
- with files from AM800's Rob Hindi