AROUND OUA: Rams defeat No. 8 ranked Gaels in four sets

SCOREBOARD

Queen's 1 @ Ryerson 3

RMC 1 @ Toronto 0

Guelph 0 @ Windsor 3

McMaster 3 @ Western 1

Rams defeat No. 8 ranked Gaels

TORONTO - The Ryerson Rams men's volleyball team rallied from a first set loss to take the next three straight to knock off the No. 8 nationally ranked Queen's Gaels 3-1 (22-25, 25-21, 25-18, 25-21) on Saturday night at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.

BOXSCORE

Lucas Coleman (Brooklin, Ont.) led the Rams with a team-high 18 kills to lead the offence while Rob Wojcik (Whitby, Ont.) and Marc Reardon (London, Ont.) each added 14 points in the win.

The Rams had a big night at the net, racking up three solo blocks alongside 27 block assists compared to just two and twelve, respectively, for the Gaels. Middle Uchenna Ofoha (Markham, Ont.) was in on seven of those blocks to lead the Rams.

In a back and forth first set the Gaels led by a slim 16-15 advantage at the technical timeout before closing it out with a strong attack game. The visitors had 16 kills in the set en route to a 25-22 victory.

Ryerson put the first out of their minds and came out stronger in the second set. Some strong serving led to several lengthy Rams streaks and the home side took that momentum to a 25-21 victory to tie the match at 1-1.

The Rams were efficient in the third, totalling 13 kills and just three errors as they took a 2-1 lead in the match with a 25-18 third set victory.

WIth the momentum now on their side, the Rams played with confidence in the fourth and was able to close out the Gaels with a 25-21 set win to take the match 3-1.

Queen's Marko Dakic finished with a game-high 20 kills and was the only Gael to reach double digits in kills.

This is the second time the Rams have defeated Queen's this season after sweeping the Gaels 3-0 back in October in Kingston. Ryerson improves their record to 12-4 on the year and move into sole possession of second place in the OUA while Queen's falls to 11-4 on the season and sit in third place.

The Rams have a week off before next facing the No. 1 ranked McMaster Marauders in Hamilton on February 11.

Source: Ryerson Rams

Blues defeat Paladins on home court

The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's volleyball team defeated the visiting RMC Paladins in a four set contest (25-22, 24-26, 25-10, 25-18) Saturday night (Jan. 30) at the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport.

Third-year outside hitter Will Colucci maintained his hot streak leading the Blues with a season-high 25 kills, now recording 16 or more kills in three straight contests. Colucci also registered nine digs, one block and one service ace.

The Varsity Blues also received a spark off the bench from second-year left-side Thomas Meier who played a pivotal role in Toronto's decisive third-set victory. Meier would finish the contest with eight kills, two blocks, and one service ace.

Setter Aleksa Miladinovic guided the offence recording 42 assists along with 16 digs, while libero Andrew Kos finished with 12 digs.

For the Paladins, Dale Towe led the way with 13 kills, six digs, three blocks and two service aces. Setter Michael Peet finished the night with 32 assists and 10 digs.

The Varsity Blues will now have two weeks to prepare for the undefeated and No. 1 McMaster Marauders who they face Saturday, February 13. First serve is scheduled for 2 p.m.

Source: Toronto Varsity Blues

Lancers split weekend home series

The Lancer men's volleyball team split a pair of weekend home games at the St. Denis Centre.
 
On Friday, the Lancers fell to the No. 1 ranked McMaster Marauders 3-0 (17-25, 13-25, 23-25), before rebounding on Saturday to sweep the Guelph Gryphons 3-0 (25-16, 26-24, 25-21).
 
The Marauders showed why they are the top team in the country, registering four blocks in the first 10 points and using their height to hit over the Lancer defense.
 
After falling behind in the first two sets, the Lancers showed their potential in the third and kept the set close right until the very end.
 
The Lancers were led by rookie Brad Gyemi with 6 kills.
 
On Saturday, the Lancers looked like an entirely different team, dominating the Gryphons in the first set from the opening serve and taking the game easily 25-16.
 
The Gryphons came out strong in the second and took the Lancers to extra points as the Blue & Gold struggled with their serve throughout the set. Windsor was able to hang on and take the set 26-24.
 
Gyemi opened the third set with five consecutive points to give Windsor an early lead. Guelph went on a streak of their own with Jared Harris and Gregory Olenjnik leading them offensively with a handful of kills. The Lancers responded with their own set of kills from Milos Savic late in the game to push them to victory.
 
Gyemi once again led the way for the Blue & Gold with 15 kills, while Josh Edwards and John Moate each contributed 6 kills.
 
The Lancers will host the Nipissing Lakers next Saturday at 8:00pm, and will close out the  regular season portion of their schedule on Sunday February 7th when they host the York Lions at 3:00pm on Senior's Day.

Source: Windsor Lancers

Mustangs fall to No. 1 ranked Marauders in four sets

LONDON, Ont. –  Despite playing some of their best volleyball of the season, the Mustangs fell to the McMaster Marauders in four sets (22-25, 17-25, 25-21, 19-25) at on Saturday night at Alumni Hall. While the Mustangs weren't able to pull out a victory over the Marauders, they did manage to take a set off the CIS No. 1 team – a feat accomplished by only two other OUA teams this season.
 
The loss puts Western's record at 7-7 and keeps them tied for fifth in the OUA alongside Waterloo and York. McMaster, with a perfect 16-0 season, sits in first place.
 
"There's an aura about [McMaster]," noted Western head coach Jim Sage. "They've been strong for a while, and it's a big rivalry. We get excited to play them, and to play number one in the country is a great opportunity. I think we took it that way. […] We want to measure ourselves against them."
 
"It gave us an opportunity to really measure ourselves against the best team in the country," said middle Mike Choja. "Going forward we know that we can hang with teams like this, but there's still some stepping stones to get to that level."
 
Leading the Mustangs through the night was Zeid Hamadeh, whose 11 kills and three assisted blocks resulted in 12.5 points. Choja came in behind with nine, while Bryn Ramsay followed up with 8.5.
 
The first set of the four-part epic can only be described as a constant power struggle. Both teams showed off their best attackers in Hamadeh and McMaster's Stephen Marr, as each fired out notable kills throughout the set.
 
The highlight of the set undoubtedly came from a Maar kill that sent the receiving Mustang flying backward and reeling in the aftermath.
 
Despite the overwhelming firepower coming from the the opposite end of the court, Western didn't back down. In true Marauder fashion, McMaster relied on power while the Mustangs fought back with accuracy.
 
Continuing to fight through every point, the set remained close even towards the final points as Ramsay led the blocking effort effort and the team shared responsibility in the back court.
 
Slowly distancing themselves from the Mustangs, McMaster closed out the set at 22-25.
 
McMaster turned it up for the second set, finding more success in their block than previously seen. Cutting out Western's offence, the Stangs struggled to find their place on the scoreboard.
 
"My assistant coach Rob Atkinson, he told them that we were getting way too fired up in timeouts," said Sage. "We were screaming. We've got to be more in control of our emotions. We like the passion on the court, but we also have to be controlled and reset ourselves."
 
Fighting their way back into the game, the Mustangs played with seemingly renewed energy and drive. Rallies extended as Western covered more ground and made impressive dives on the floor and into the scoring table to keep the ball up.
 
McMaster continued to play with their typical ferocity, blocking five attacks and serving out 11 kills. However, Western was only able to briefly stall McMaster on their way to 25, as the set ended at 17-25.
 
Returning to the floor the Mustangs immediately began to send out attacks and blocks to rival that of McMaster.
 
The early points saw the Marauders taking balls off shoulders, and even those landing on forearms would fly out of control. Ramsay, in particular, was challenging the Marauders as a few of his kills drew audible gasps from the crowd.
 
Western kept the pressure on with blocks anchored by fourth-year middle Choja, and closed by Hamadeh and Ramsay, while setter Matt Hooker took a larger role in the backcourt than previously.
 
The lead built up by Western proved to be too much for the Marauders to handle, as the set closed out at 25-21 in favour of the home court Mustangs.
 
"That third set was huge for us," said Choja. "I would have liked the margin to be a bit bigger, we kind of collapsed a bit at the end there, but we were still able to close it off with a big block from Bryn at the end."
 
McMaster responded to the loss by opening up the fourth set with four consecutive points. While some teams would throw in the towel, the deficit seemed to only light a fire under the win hungry Mustangs.
 
The point difference was maintained throughout the set, but rallies continued to be lengthy with the Mustangs rising to match McMaster's level of play. Even as Western trailed on the scoreboard, they played some of the most competitive and hard fought volleyball of their season.
 
Unwilling to have a single blemish on their record, the Marauders pushed through the Mustangs to end the final set at 19-25.
 
"This past weekend gave us an opportunity to measure where we're at, but also where we can go," said Choja about the match.
 
The Mustangs return to the floor next week, when they remain as fixtures in Alumni Hall with another action packed weekend. First, they'll take on the York Lions on Friday night, with a matchup against Nipissing scheduled for the following day.

Source: Western Mustangs