The Redeemer Royals Men's Volleyball team overcame a 2-1 deficit on Wednesday night to notch their 4th straight win. Redeemer needed 5 sets to tame the surging Sheridan Bruins in an intense matchup with a playoff type feel.

Every match in the difficult OCAA West division is a jockeying for position and the Royals helped their cause keeping their record at just one loss so far this season. Their 5-1 record has the team tied for 3rd place with the 5-1 Niagara Knights. The 7-1 Fanshawe Falcons and 6-0 Mohawk Mountaineers both sit above the Royals. Ironically, Redeemer will face all 3 mentioned teams in their final 3 matches of the semester. This will provide a good benchmark for the men's team heading into Christmas and preparing for the second semester playoff run.

The Royals and Bruins split the first two sets with Redeemer taking the first 25-20 and Sheridan taking the 2nd 25-19. In the 3rd, Redeemer jumped out to and 8-2 lead, seemingly in control of the match. However, a couple of timely timeouts by the Bruins gave the visitors the push they needed as they came all the way back, winning the 3rd set 25-22.

Redeemer controlled the 4th set, taking it 25-16 forcing a 5th and deciding set.

After Redeemer took a 4-1 lead in the 5th, Sheridan stormed back, leading the set 8-5 at the turn. The back-and-forth continued as the Royals pulled together a 4 point run to take the lead 9-8. Point for point, through 12, Redeemer went up 13-12 and Nico DeBruyne stepped up and closed out the match with 2 straight aces.

It was a strong scoring night for the Royals as 4 Redeemer players hit double digits. Mitchell Harris led all scorers with his best game as a Royal, contributing 26 points.
Nico DeBruyne had 18 points while Jeffrey Ekeanyanwu and Shawn Brus each had 13. 1st year setter Reuben Middel had 43 assists.

Redeemer has the rest of the week off before hosting the Mohawk Mountaineers on November 24th at 8pm.