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.
