The Redeemer Royals are the 2017-2018 OCAA Men's Volleyball Bronze Medalist. The Royals defeated the host, Georgian Grizzlies, in a thrilling 5-set match to capture third place in Ontario. 

The medal puts Redeemer Men's Volleyball back on the podium, grabbing their first since 2013. 

After knocking off the East's #2 George Brown in the quarterfinal, the Royals stumbled against the #1 team in Canada, Fanshawe, in the Semi's. Georgian entered the bronze medal match having lost just once all season, a 3-0 loss to Humber in the other Championship semi final. 

The Royals came out strong in the match, stunning the host, on their way to a 25-16 win in the first. It was the host Grizzlies however that stunned the Royals in the 2nd, winning by an identical score of 25-16. Redeemer found their game again in the 3rd, winning 25-19. The fourth saw the hosts battle back to force a 5th set winning 25-17. In the 5th, the Royals held the advantage at the turn, 8-7 before pouring it on to finish it out with a 7-3 run. 

Zacc Burke (North Bay) had his match of the tournament registering 13 kills along with two aces and two blocks and was named the player of the game. 

"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."

After finishing the season with a 13-5 record, good enough for 3rd in the OCAA West, the Royals had high hopes going into the event after capturing 5th place and the Consolation Championship last season. Despite losing the semi final on Friday, Redeemer did not disappoint, knocking off the #2 and #1 teams from the OCAA East. 

The Medal is Redeemer's 4th in program history, adding this year's bronze to 2 previous bronze medals and one silver.

Redeemer's Eli Tolkamp was named a tournament All-Star. 

For full results, visit OCAA.com