Licis follows unlikely path to Queen’s, now nationals

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This article was published 19/03/2025 (212 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Queen’s Gaels’ trip to Brandon this weekend is, in part, the result of a butterfly effect tracing back to the Soviet occupation of Latvia, which ended 34 years ago.

In short, it led to Zig Licis being born and finding volleyball, then developing into a first-team all-star in Ontario University Athletics and guiding the Gaels to a conference title.

They’re the No. 4 seed for the U Sports men’s volleyball championship, facing the Saskatchewan Huskies in the quarterfinals on Friday at 8 p.m.

Now for the longer version. Licis’s grandparents immigrated to Canada and the United States to escape Latvia during a time of unrest.

They had children — Licis’s Canadian father and American mother — who met at a Latvian summer camp in Michigan called Latvian Center Garezers, which brings people of similar heritage together to connect over their culture.

They raised Licis — pronounced LEET-sis — in Chicago until he was in Grade 6 when they moved to Louisville, Colo., to satiate their love for skiing and the outdoors.

Zig attended the same camp growing up, and since volleyball’s big in Latvia, it’s one of the main sports there.

He didn’t play organized volleyball until Grade 10 but took to it quickly. The six-foot-five outside hitter also played baseball and lacrosse in high school but realized volleyball was his thing. He wasn’t going to have colleges banging down his door, though, playing in the opposite of a volleyball hotbed.

“It’s growing in a lot of places … but Colorado, it was not big,” Licis said.

“Man, when I was in high school it wasn’t even classified as a boys’ organized varsity sport.”

Licis reached out to a bunch of schools in both Canada and the U.S., since he has dual citizenship. Queen’s coach Gabriel deGroot liked what he saw and gave him a shot.

“Maybe it was a flyer, I know Gabe likes his taller, physical athletes so that definitely had something to do with it,” Licis said.

Licis didn’t play much his rookie year, then posted 73 kills in 2021-22. He stayed in Kingston every summer after COVID-19 concerns eased, basically training with the team year-round.

It translated into a career-high 179 kills and a .254 hitting percentage in 2023-24, the year Queen’s hosted nationals and knocked off Trinity Western in the opening round.

Now with the departure of Gaels’ star Erik Siksna, Licis emerged as the go-to guy, leading the team with 3.17 kills per set while hitting .297, his best season to date.

Licis had all three colours of OUA medals before adding a second gold two weeks ago.

He was named a first-team all-star while Reed Venning cracked the second team and setter Chris Zimmerman earned a third-team nod.

“They’re not necessarily those types of profile players from an 18U club recruiting standpoint. It’s not like they were the blue-chip guys coming out of their recruiting class,” deGroot said.

“It’s a testament to the fact that they’ve grown into those roles and progressed and developed as players.

“Zig has stepped into that role over the last three matches, in our OUA championship run he scored 80 points, which is incredible.”

GAELS AWARE OF TOUGH

CHAMPIONSHIP DRAW

The national bracket is basically a map of Canada with one twist, flipping Queen’s onto the west side and Alberta to the east.

The Gaels play a Huskies side that qualified by clawing back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the No. 5-ranked UBC Thunderbirds in the Canada West bronze-medal match.

Saskatchewan is dangerous, and if Queen’s survives the opening round, it faces the unenviable task of downing the top-ranked Winnipeg Wesmen or the host Brandon University Bobcats on the backs of 1,400-plus supporters on their home court in Saturday’s semifinals.

“There’s no denying and there’s no skirting around the fact that OUA teams matched up against Canada West teams at national championships have not fared well,” deGroot said.

“We’re aware of that and we know the task of getting into that medal round, it feels like climbing Mount Everest. But that’s the job, our job’s hard and our team has been made aware of the fact that winning is difficult.

“What we want to try and accomplish with this group is extremely hard.”

The head coach knows Saskatchewan will have a strong fan base, and that playing right after BU and U of W likely means most of the energy from the most-anticipated quarterfinal will linger.

He feels the group is ready for anything and has proven that in the playoffs, beating Guelph 3-1 and Western 3-2 at home before knocking off top-seed Windsor in front of 2,250 fans on the road.

“I felt the difference in the pre-game preparation is it’s not new for our team to be in a championship match, to be in a big moment with a full house like that. I don’t think it was new,” deGroot said.

“They’ve been in these situations and they make it less about the event and more about just going out and playing the game.

“I did not feel that way in the way Windsor played. I felt the moment itself was bigger than maybe the way they played. That’s a testament to my group and the experience they have.”

In the playoffs, the Gaels offence featured heavy doses of Licis and Venning, who led the team with 313 regular-season kills.

Nikola Mitrovic and Lachlan McBride — the OUA nominee for the Dr. Dale Iwanoczko award — put up 125 and 124 kills, respectively.

Zimmerman averaged 9.07 assists per set while running the fifth-most-efficient offence in the country at .282.

Queen’s leads the tournament field in aces with 141 and plans to do the same at nationals.

“We take a lot of risk from the service line. We know we make more errors in almost every single match than our opponent but it’s a decision we make to play aggressive,” deGroot said.

“I know, in contrast, that’s not necessarily the way Saskatchewan plays. They force you to play the ball, they play fast, they’re going to make us earn it so it’ll be an interesting matchup of contrasting styles.

“That’s their style, that’s what they trust and they know their block defence can do really great things in that scenario. We’re not built that way.”

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