M-VOLLEYBALL ROUNDUP: Playoff matches set for Saturday
McMaster Marauders @ Toronto Varsity Blues
Toronto - The McMaster men's volleyball team took it to extra sets to take down the Toronto Varsity Blues on Saturday afternoon. Jori Mantha was the team's game-high scorer with 18 points.
The Marauders easily defeated the Blues in the first 25-16, but found themselves down 2-1 in sets after Toronto came out winning the second by a score of 25-20 and the third in extra points at 31-29. In the fourth, McMaster forced the fifth set, winning 25-17. In the fifth, McMaster would earn the win with a score of 15-11.
Mantha's 18 points were accompanied by 10 kills, an ace and three blocks from middle Alex Elliot. Also hitting double-digit numbers was Kevin Stevens with 11 points. Setter TJ Sanders recorded 42 assists in the five set win.
For the Blues, Mitchell Woodside recorded a game-high 22 points with 19 kills and three aces. Jake Dysselhof added 15 points and Matthew Vares recorded another 12 for Toronto. Setter Alex Park recorded 41 assists.
Source: Marauders Athletics
The York University Lions men's volleyball team notched its second straight win on Saturday (Feb. 11), as it defeated the visiting Ryerson Rams by a score of 3-1 (25-22, 17-25, 25-15, 25-19) in an afternoon matchup at Tait McKenzie Centre.
Ray Szeto (Sutton, Ont.) led all scorers with 21 points on a game-high 20 kills and one ace. He leads the Lions in scoring this season with 3.24 points per game.
Szeto was the only Lions player to reach double digits, but he got great support from Gregory Ivan (Toronto), who chipped in nine points and a team-high two blocks, along with Marko Dakic (Mississauga, Ont.) and Nikola Sandic (Etobicoke, Ont.), who each contributed eight points in the win.
Rookie libero Daniel Dearing (Toronto) was the top defender on the afternoon with 13 digs.
Alexander Dawson (Scarborough, Ont.) led the Rams with 19 points, followed by Stefan Ristic (Belgrade, Serbia) with 11.
Aleksa Miladinovic (Belgrade, Serbia) was the top setter with 29 assists.
With the win, the Lions improve to 8-9 on the year and have a chance to finish the season with a .500 record, but they will have to get past the second-place McMaster Marauders (14-3) to do so. The Marauders are also the Lions' quarterfinal opponent in the OUA playoffs, too, which are set to go next Saturday (Feb. 18).
The first set was incredibly close, with neither team holding more than a five-point lead at any point in time.
The lead would change hands several times throughout the first half of the frame, but the Lions came out slightly ahead at the technical timeout, 16-15, thanks to a kill from Felipe Humana-Paredes (Toronto) that tied things up at 15, and a block from Karim Khalil (Mississauga, Ont.) that gave the Lions their first lead since the opening minutes of the frame.
The Lions then came out of the timeout and took five of the next six points to open up their biggest lead of the set, 21-16.
The Rams would pull to within two late, but Szeto would immediately respond with a kill that put the Lions back up by three and took the wind out of the Rams' sails. Humana-Paredes would cap the set win moments later with a kill of his own.
The second set would play out much differently than the first. The Rams scored back-to-back points to jump out to an early 2-0 lead, and in sharp contrast to the opening set, that lead would never change hands, even though the Lions would tie things up on four separate occasions.
After Dakic pulled the Lions even for the last time at 12-12, the Rams would fire off three-straight points and eventually take a 16-13 lead into the technical on a kill from Sakvarelidze.
Following the technical timeout, Dawson would take charge for the Rams, first throwing down a kill then firing off three-straight aces on his ensuing service game to open up a 20-14 Rams lead.
The Rams would cruise from there and close out the set on a 3-0 run, capped by a set-winning kill from none other than Dawson himself.
The third set would turn out to be almost a carbon copy of the second, but this time, it was the Lions who took an early lead and did not let go.
The Rams would score the first point of the frame, but the Lions would win the next three and take advantage of several errors by the Rams in the opening minutes of the frame, along with kills from Dakic, Ivan and Sandic, to go ahead 16-10 at the technical.
Szeto would get in on the kill parade following the technical and also chip in an ace down the stretch to help the Lions to the 10-point set win.
In the fourth, the Lions would continue the trend of protecting early leads. Humana-Paredes opened the scoring and the Lions would go on to defend that one-point lead for the entirety of the final stanza.
The turning point of the set came early on when Sandic and Szeto registered back-to-back kills to open up a 9-5 lead. Szeto would add another kill moments later and carry the Lions into the technical with a comfortable 16-11 lead.
The Lions would continue to roll following the technical thanks to a pair of kills from Sandic, which set up a 21-14 lead. Szeto would take over from there, slamming down his fourth and fifth kills of the set, the fifth coming on match point.
Source: Lions Athletics
Toronto - The McMaster men's volleyball team finished off the regular season with a win over the York Lions. The five set win, with scores of 26-28, 25-14, 25-23, 25-21, 15-11, was the Marauders 15th win of the season.
Middle Tyson Alexander had a game-high 17 points in the win with 12 kills, one ace and four blocks. Rookie Daniel Groenveld had 16 kills and Brendan Dennis had 11 more for McMaster. Setter Austin Smith recorded a game-high 50 assists in the match.
For York, Karim Khalil had a team-high 16 points with 13 kills and three blocks. Ray Szeto had 14 points, Nikola Sandic had 12 and Greg Ivan had 11 more for the Lions. Libero Daniel Dearing recorded 24 digs in the Lions' loss.
The Marauders finish second in the league, just behind the Western Mustangs, and will host a playoff game on Saturday, February 18.
Source: Marauders Athletics
The Varsity Blues men’s volleyball team notched a thrilling 3-2 (25-20, 30-32, 25-23, 20-25, 15-13) victory over the Ryerson Rams in their final game of the 2011-12 season on Sunday, February 12 at the Athletic Centre Sports Gym.
The Blues end the season with a 5-13 record in eighth place in the OUA.
Veteran right side hitter Mitchell Woodside ended the season with two consecutive kills to lead the Blues to a 15-13 fifth-set win and Toronto’s second win over Ryerson this season. The Clyde River, P.E.I., native tallied a game-high 22 kills and added six digs and two serving aces in the win.
Sophomore left side hitter Jake Dysselhof of Mississauga, Ont., notched 16 kills, while Matthew Vares (Scarborough, Ont.) had 11. Second-year setter Alex Park had 50 assists and 10 digs, while Michael Denton recorded 11 digs on the day.
The Rams were led by Luka Milosevic, who had 22 kills and seven digs. Alex Dawson added 14 kills and Roman Kabanoc had 11 in the loss.
Source: Varsity Blues Athletics
