The Redeemer Royals faced the host Georgian Grizzlies in the bronze medal match of the 2018 OCAA Men's Volleyball Championship presented by belairdirect at the Georgian Athletic Centre in Barrie.
It was an incredible battle between the two teams in a roller coaster matchup with both the Royals and Grizzlies pushing through the highs and lows with a medal on the line.
The two teams were very even and split the first four sets.
In the fifth and deciding tiebreak set, the Royals were able to pull away to earn the bronze medal in a 3-2 victory by set scores of 25-16, 16-25, 25-19, 17-25 and 15-10.
Zacc Burke (North Bay) had his match of the tournament registering 13 kills along with two aces and two blocks.
"It was a fantastic game, Georgian played phenomenally and we battled all the way," said Burke. "It was amazing. It's been a long ride, I love the guys and it's a great way to finish off our season."
Redeemer head coach Brad Douwes was proud of his team's performance.
"Unreal, what a battle," said Douwes after the win. "Kudos to Georgian, they have some big offensive weapons. We did what we could to limit them."
"It was a good game, the crowd was amazing and it got emotional. There was tons of energy and what an incredible experience for our guys. I'm pumped for them."
Douwes felt his team's approach heading into the final weeks of the season made a big difference.
"We talked about it a lot the last couple of weeks about how we conduct ourselves. We talked about being consistent, positive and being confident and the last couple of weeks we took that on. We were able to do that this week and that continued through today."
The Royals earn their fourth OCAA medal in team history and their first since winning bronze back in the 2012-13 season.
Ryan DeBruyn (Ottawa) was named Player of the Game for Georgian after scoring a team-high 16 kills. The host Grizzlies came up just short of winning their first OCAA medal in the team's history.
Source: Georgian College