MEN'S VOLLEYBALL ROUNDUP: Waterloo gives No. 1 McMaster a scare
Ryerson 3 @ Toronto 1
The Varsity Blues men's volleyball team come up short 3-1(25-23, 27-29, 21-25, 18-25) against the Ryerson Rams in a downtown match up on Friday night at the Athletic Centre Sports Gym.
With the loss, the Blues drop to 4-7 and sit tied for sixth as they head into the winter break.
The teams went point for point to start the first set before the Blues took the lead. The Rams went on a four point run to close the gap to 16-15 and a battle for the lead ensued; however, Toronto held on to close out the first set 25-23.
After a number of serving errors, from both sides of the net, Ryerson took the lead in the second set. Despite a five point run by Toronto, the Rams finally settled the game, taking the set 29-27.
In the third set the Blues maintained the lead with the Rams never more than two points behind, but in the end a couple late runs notched it 25-21 for Ryerson.
The Blues were unable to close an eight point gap in the fourth set, and the Rams took it 25-18.
Veteran Jay Tremonti led the Blues offence with eight kills, while teammate Jake Dysselhof had six kills and a serving ace and setter Aleksa Miladinovic had 25 assists and 13 digs.
The Rams were led by Robert Wojcik who had 13 kills on the night and two serving aces, while Adam Anagnostopoulos made 40 assists.
The Varsity Blues return to the court on January 11, when they travel to take on the Nipissing Lakers. Game time is set for 4 p.m.
Source: Toronto Sports Info
Waterloo 2 @ McMaster 3
It's nice to be the top-ranked team in Canada, but the McMaster men's volleyball team got a taste of what being a target means as the Waterloo Warriors gave the Marauders all they could handle before losing a 3-2 match to the team in Maroon.
There was a sense from the start that Waterloo would bring its best effort against McMaster in a clash of the top two teams in the OUA standings. The opening set saw Mac with a narrow 16-14 edge at the technical break, but the Marauders managed to grow the lead to 20-15, and a combination of solid serving and some errors by the Warriors allowed McMaster to take the first set 25-19.
Set-two was closely contested with McMaster leading 13-9, when the Marauders started to make some passing errors that got the Warriors even at 15-15. Fighting to avoid a two-set deficit, Waterloo needed a timeout at 18-20 to stop the Maroon momentum. McMaster continued to struggle with its serve reception and the Warriors evened the match with a 25-23 win.
The third set will haunt Waterloo as the Warriors thoroughly outplayed the Marauders and looked poised to grab the lead in the match. Leading 18-12 Waterloo took its collective foot off the McMaster throat and gave the Marauders some life. Taking advantage McMaster rallied to tie the match at 20-20, and the set turned into a slugfest. Going into extra points, both teams had chances to win and every point had fans cheering like a title was at stake. Finally, it was the Warriors that missed on a timing play and the Marauders prevailed 32-30 to take a 2-1 set lead.
Despite missing an opportunity, Waterloo showed its mettle and battled in the fourth set, determined to force a fifth. Leading 22-17, Waterloo again allowed McMaster to close the gap but managed to hold on to win 25-23 to even up the match.
Playing its second five-set match in OUA play this year, McMaster took the early lead to dispel Waterloo notions of an upset. Leading 8-5 at the crossover, McMaster let the Warriors battle back to even at 8-8. The Marauders then went up 11-8 and were able to maintain the lead for a 15-11 victory that gave them the match.
The BIG MAC Player of the game was middle Danny Demyanenko, who finished with 22.5 points that included 16 kills. Jayson McCarthy and Alex Elliot had strong matches also with 17 and 11.5 points respectively. Waterloo's James Evans had 10 points for the Warriors and was named player of the game, but several of the visitors would have been worthy recipients.
Source: McMaster Sports Info
Western 3 @ Queen’s 1
KINGSTON (November 29, 2013) - After the Gaels went up 1-0 in Friday night's match at the ARC main gym, the Mustangs bounced back to win three consecutive sets and earn the 3-1 victory, 20-25, 25-21, 25-15, and 25-23.
Queen's jumped out to an early lead thanks to 6 kills from Philippe Goyer (Ottawa) in the first set. The Gaels pulled away after leading at the technical timeout, never looking back and cruising to take the set 25-20.Â
Western flipped the storyline on Queen's, winning three consecutive sets en route to the 3-1 win.
Mike Tomlinson (Stratford, Ont.) led the Gaels in many facets, picking up 16 kills, 15 digs, and five service aces. Darren Edwards (Waterdown, Ont.) put up a team-high five assisted blocks. Goyer finished the match with 14 kills.
The Mustangs balanced attack was led by Garrett May, who finished the game with 15 kills.
Source: Queen’s Sports Info
Windsor 3 @ RMC 0
KINGSTON, Ont.- The Windsor Lancers men's volleyball team defeated the RMC Paladins in straights sets (25-19, 26-24, 25-23) on Friday night, improving to a 4-5 conference mark.
Greg Simone led the Lancers charge with a game-high 10 kills, while middle Adam Thompson added seven kills and two blocks for the men, who have won three of their past four contests.
Chad Hinchey and Alexander Vukolic each tallied six kills, and Shawn Reaume tallied a game-best 21 digs from the libero position on the night. Blase Wasser picked up 25 asssists for Windsor, who garnered a .207 kill percentage compared to .153 from the Paladins (0-9). RMC was led by Thomas McMullen who grabbed nine kills and a contest-high 16.0 points.
Source: Windsor Sports Info
Saturday, November 30
McMaster 3 @ Guelph 0
GUELPH, Ont. (November 30, 2013) - The Guelph Gryphon's men's volleyball team was defeated with a final score of 3-0 Saturday night to the McMaster Marauders. Set scores were 26-24, 25-20, and 25-23.
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Patrick Strzalkowski led the Gryphon offence with 15 points (10 kills, 5 aces) followed by Tim Warnholtz with 13 points (13 kills).
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Jori Mantha led the Marauders with 15 points (14 kills, 1 ace), followed by Stephen Maar with 11 points (9 kills, 2 aces).
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Guelph opened the first set on fire, taking a 5-0 lead over the top rated McMaster Marauders. Mac battled throughout the match, eventually cutting the deficit to 15-14 for Guelph. The rest of the set was back and forth, with each team exchanging points. Eventually Mac was able to tie the set up at 21. The two squads exchanged points to tie set up at 22 and then again at 23. Guelph took the next point to put them in the drivers seat up 24-23, but Mac took the next three points to take the set 26-23.
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The second set started much the same as the first, with Guelph taking an early 5-2 lead thanks in large part to some strong play by Luke Woud and Kyle Richards. Mac was able to tie the set up at 6. Mac then went on a 10-6 run, taking a 16-12 lead, forcing the Gryphon's to take a time out. Immediately following the timeout Guelph went on a 5-2 run of their own to cut McMaster's lead to one, 18-17. However, Guelph could not get any closer, eventually losing the set 25-20.
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Guelph opened the third set with yet another lead, taking the first 3 points. Mac then went on a 7-3 run to take a 7-6 lead over the Gryphon's. After more back and forth scoring, Guelph managed to take the lead, 14-13. After exchanging points, Mac was able to tie it up at 17, and then take the lead, 20-17, forcing the Gryphon's to take a timeout. Despite their best attempt at a comeback, the Gryphon's fell in the third and final set, 25-23.
Source: Guelph Sports Info
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Windsor 2 @ Queen’s 3
KINGSTON (November 30, 2013) - After losing the first set, the Gaels cameback to beat the Windsor Lancers in extra points of the fifth set 3-2 Saturday night at the ARC, 20-25, 25-16, 25-18, 21-25, and 17-15.
Mike Tomlinson (Stratford, Ont.) started the game as the Gaels' top performer, picking up 13 kills through the first two and half sets. Tyler Scheerhoorn replaced Tomlinson midway through the third set, picking up where the Stratford native left off, with 16 kills to finish the game.
After Queen's took a 2-1 lead, the Lancers clawed their way back into the match with a strong fourth-set performance, especially from Greg Simone, who finished with a team-high 11 kills. Other notable players for Windsor include Shawn Reaume, who picked up 28 digs, and Scott Hickman, who made 4 solo blocks and 7 assisted blocks.
Queen's closed out the match with a late comeback in the fifth set after trailing 13-10. The Gaels earned their first match-point at 16-15, and capitalized with a double-block from Will Sidgwick (Toronto) and Scott Brunet (Calgary).
Ivo Dramov (Plovdiv, Bulgaria) led the Gaels with 22 digs, and Darren Edwards (Waterdown, Ont.) had a team-high 5 assisted blocks.
Queen's (4-6) resume action in 2014 with a pair of home games on January 11th and 12th against Waterloo and Guelph, respectively.
Source: Queen’s Sports Info
Western 3 @ RMC 0
KINGSTON, Ont.- After winning against Queen's on Friday, the Western Mustang's men's volleyball team continued their doubleheader weekend on Saturday, picking up their third consecutive victory with a 3-0 (25-22, 25-17, 25-15) win over the RMC Paladins at the Kingston Military Community Sports Centre.
With the win the Mustangs head into the holiday break with an 8-2 record, tied with Ryerson for second place in the OUA.
Western dominated the Paladins more than doubling their opponent's kill scores in each set, with the team's lowest kill percentage coming in the first frame with a 28.2% conversion rate.
The first set was the close with the RMC not falling too far behind the Mustangs, but with only 8 kills to Western's 17 kills, the team couldn't keep up leaving a final set score of 25-22. The Western squad kept up the momentum for the next two sets, with 16 kills and 18 kills respectively taking the match 3-0.
Derek Kuiack led the Mustangs with 15 kills, a service ace, and two digs. Fellow Mustang Phil James added five service aces as well as nine additional kills for the men's squad, while Doug Austrom tallied 9 kills, three service aces, and nine digs for the Mustangs. Thomas McMullen countered for the Paladins with 8 kills to lead the RMC offence with Blake McCelland leading the defensive efforts with 13 digs.
Source: Western Sports Info