AROUND OUA: Rams win regular season finale over Mustangs
TORONTO – The Ryerson Rams men’s volleyball team punctuated a strong regular season with a 3-0 sweep (25-18, 25-16, 25-21) of the Western Mustangs on Saturday night in the final game before playoffs.
SCOREBOARD
Rams win regular season finale over Mustangs
TORONTO – The Ryerson Rams men's volleyball team punctuated a strong regular season with a 3-0 sweep (25-18, 25-16, 25-21) of the Western Mustangs on Saturday night in the final game before playoffs.
BOXSCORE
Following a pre-game presentation for the five fifth year seniors leaving the team at the end of this season, the Rams got down to business quickly against the Mustangs.
Tied at 10-10 in the first set, senior Rob Wojcik (Whitby, Ont.) went to work from the service line. He rattled off two aces and forced two overpasses for easy kills by his teammates to take the Rams to the technical timeout up 16-10. Ryerson's lead grew to as many as nine in the set before closing it out with a Lucas Coleman (Brooklin, Ont.) kill as the home squad took the opening set 25-18.
In the second the Rams limited the Mustangs offence to only eight kills and prevented the visitors from scoring more than two points in any one run. Already up 14-12, a 4-0 run from the Rams in the middle of the set gave them the separation they needed and controlled the late stages to win the set 25-16 and take a 2-0 match lead.
Ryerson built another early lead in the third set and held a 16-12 advantage at the technical timeout. The Rams lead grew to six at 20-14 but Western made a run to cut the deficit to just two at 21-19. Three straight points from the home side squashed the idea of a comeback and the Rams took the third set 25-21 to complete the sweep.
"We had to take care of the things we wanted and I felt in the middle of the sets we were a little bit better than they were and that was the difference; we never faced too much pressure at the end," said head coach Dustin Reid.
Coleman finished with a game-high 17 kills while Wojcik added 13 kills and a hitting percentage of 63.2% in the victory. The Rams as whole hit a mind-boggling 44.0% and held Western to just 13.7%.
Western's Bryn Ramsay had a team-high 15 kills in the loss.
Saturday night was a potential playoff preview as the Rams are poised to host the Mustangs next Saturday, but coach Reid was quick to point out that next week is a different match.
"They're a very good team, a proud team, skilled, (with) a lot of athleticism at the net. There's very little that we'll take from this as far as feeling better about next week."
Prior to the game the Rams honoured Marc Reardon, Alex Dawson, Brandon Jordan, Wesley Kosiba and Rob Wojcik as they played their final regular season game on home court.
Stay tuned to ryersonrams.ca for more playoff information throughout the coming week.
Source: Ryerson Rams
Blues blank Lancers for fifth straight win
The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's volleyball team defeated the Windsor Lancers 3-0 (25-17, 25-20, 25-20) in their regular season finale on Saturday night (Feb. 20) at Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport.
The Blues finish the regular season in fourth place with a 13-7 record and will host either the Western Mustangs or Waterloo Warriors in OUA quarter-final action next Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at Goldring Centre. Advance tickets are on sale here.
Third-year left side hitter Will Colucci led all players with 14 points, notching 12 kills, one ace and one block, while also adding eight digs on the night.
Fifth-year veteran Stefan Ristic notched 11 points on 10 kills and one block, while middle Zia Karim also had 11 points on three kills, five blocks and three aces.
Fifth-year setter Aleksa Miladinovic tallied 27 assists and six digs, with rookie libero Andrew Kos notching eight digs in the victory.
Windsor was led by Roland Bouchard, who had eight points in the loss.
The Varsity Blues honoured graduating players Stefan Ristic, Aleksa Miladinovic, Will Colucci and Nathaniel Virgo in a special pre-game ceremony.
Source: Toronto Varsity Blues
Lakers earn split to close out season
The Nipissing Lakers men's volleyball had only pride to play for after their playoff hopes were dashed Friday night.
And they certainly showed a lot of it when they closed out the season against the powerful McMaster Marauders.
Despite coming up short, losing 3-1, they showed a lot of heart, fighting back in the third set to force the match to a fourth.
Right from the start, the teams were going point for point with neither team gaining too much control and when they did, the other would step up and grab back some of that momentum.
Eventually it was McMaster who came out on top of the first set, using their experience to pick up a 25-22 victory to kick the match off.
The second set broke down pretty similar overall, as neither team was able to really take a stranglehold of the match, despite some big hits, blocks and serves from both sides.
Once again, it was the Marauders who escaped with the win, claiming set two by a final of 25-19 to put the Lakers on the ropes.
In a do or die set, Nipissing came up with an extremely gutsy performance.
With only a win in the standings and the feeling of taking a win into the of-season, it would have been easy for Nipissing to pack it in and call it a season, but they fought back.
They used some big blocks late and a strong serving game to come away with a 25-22 win and push the match to a fourth set.
Riding high off their win in set three, the Lakers came out strong in the fourth and grabbed an early lead.
Nipissing scored the first five points of the fourth set and battled the whole way, but it was McMaster who ended up coming out on top, winning 25-19 to pick up the fourth set victory.
Offensively, the Lakers weren't as potent as they were Friday night, but they still were able to show their balance on the court.
Cam Branch and Lyndon Sonego each had nine kills to lead Nipissing, while Steve Wood added six and Jason Cannon had five.
The Lakers finished with seven wins on the season and missed the playoffs by just four points.
The team has the potential for big things next year, with a great group of returning players and a few recruits already signed for the future.
Source: Nipissing Lakers
Gaels secure second place in OUA with win over Paladins
KINGSTON, Ont. (February 20, 2016)- The CIS No. 8 ranked Queen's Gaels men's volleyball team ended their regular season with a 3-1 (25-17, 25-7, 24-26, 25-20) triumph over the RMC Paladins on Saturday night at the Athletics and Recreation Centre (ARC) to secure second-place in the OUA conference standings heading into the playoffs.
Queen's will now host the York Lions who finished in seventh-place in the OUA and the winner will advance to the OUA Final Four. The Gaels host York next Saturday at 3pm at the ARC Main Gym. Get your tickets by visiting www.gogaelsgo.com/tickets
GAME FLOW
Ben Harper (Ottawa) and Scott Brunet (Calgary) each recorded a game-high 17 points in the win. Harper also had a game-best of 14 kills, and worked at a .423 hitting efficiency for the Gaels, and Brunet picked up 12 kills and five blocks while committing no errors throughout the contest. Tyler Scheerhorn (Belleville, Ont.) added nine kills and 12 points in the win, which was the Gaels third in a row and seventh in the past nine.
Dale Towe picked up a team-high 12 kills and 15 points in a losing cause for the Paladins (0-20), who put up a tough fight after going down by two sets and tallying just seven points in the second. After working in the red during the first two sets of play, the RMC's offence re-ignited in the third set, jumping up to an impressive .345 efficiency.
Conversely, after an impressive second set where they committed just one attack error, the hosts took a bit of a step back in the third, tallying eight errors to go along with 10 kills. The Paladins were able to take advantage and squeak by with a close set victory to cut the Queen's lead in half.
The Paladins continued to remain strong offensively in the fourth, taking a 16-14 lead at the technical timeout. Head Coach Brenda Willis was taking no chances with second-place in the conference on the line, and re-inserted Marko Dakic as well as Mike Tomlinson (Stratford, Ont.) for the latter stages of the set.
The men took five of the next six points coming out of the timeout, but the Paladins responded with three-straight to even the match at 20-20. Dakic went to work soon after, tallying three kills in a row and, after Towe committed an error to give Queen's a set-point, the Mississauga, Ont. native tallied his ninth kill of the match to seal the victory for his team as well as the second-place ranking in the OUA conference standings.
BY THE NUMBERS
8- The Gaels finished the regular season with an impressive 8-2 record at the ARC
.350- Marko Dakic's .350 hitting percentage ranks him third in the conference
17- Ben Harper's 17 points, 14 kills, and three aces was a career-best for the sophomore outside hitter
UP NEXT
The Gaels secured a home playoff date for next Saturday February 27 at 3pm against the OUA's seventh-seeded team the York Lions.
Source: Queen's Gaels
