TORONTO - The Ryerson Rams women's volleyball team needed a full five sets to knock off the visiting Queen's Gaels on Saturday night at the Mattamy Athletic Centre. After dropping the first two sets the Rams rallied for the 3-2 (25-27, 27-29, 25-16, 26-24, 15-12) victory.
BOXSCORE
Veronica Livingston (Kelowna, B.C.) led the Rams with 20 kills and 23.5 total points on the night, while Jena Bonello (Vaughan, Ont.) matched her career high with 12 kills and Sim Gill (Mississauga, Ont.) established a new best with 11.
The Rams were in control for much of the first two sets before the Gaels rallied late to force the sets to extra points. The Gaels fought off three set points against them in the first to comeback and win the set 27-25. In the second, a float serve nipped just part of the baseline to give the visitors a 29-27 victory and 2-0 lead in the match.
Ryerson didn't get too ahead of themselves and took the rest of the match point by point which paid off. The Rams stormed out to a 16-6 lead at the third set technical timeout and controlled the set start to finish, winning it 25-16 to continue the match.
In the fourth, the Gaels held a slim 16-15 lead at the technical timeout but the Rams stuck to their game plan and rallied for a 26-24 victory to force a fifth and deciding set.
The Rams led 8-6 at the switch before going on to the 15-12 victory to complete the comeback.
"It would have been easy for us to really bottom out, would have been easy to get down on ourselves and to get frustrated with each other but we played a strong third set and I don't think we got too far ahead of ourselves at any point, we just sort of played the best we could in the moment," said head coach Dustin Reid following the match.
Veronica Livingston ultimately won the battle of Livingston sisters, as her younger sister Caroline Livingston led her team with 20 kills on the night as well but the Rams came away victorious.
"It was pretty cool to see them out there; they were matched up against each other at the net a lot of times and both played great. Veronica really carried us throughout that match when we were struggling and she did a great job. Caroline is an up-and-coming star in our league in my opinion so that was pretty cool," said Reid.
The Rams improve to 11-2 on the season, and 11-0 against all teams not named Toronto, while Queen's drops to 8-7 on the year. Ryerson is back in action on Saturday, February 6 when they host the Lakehead Thunderwolves at 2:00 p.m. before heading to Ottawa the following day to face off agaist the Gee-Gees.
