AROUND OUA: Colucci shines as Blues beat Lakers

AROUND OUA

Nipissing 0 @ Toronto 3

Western 0 @ McMaster 3

Windsor 1 @ Waterloo 3

York 1 @ Ryerson 3

Colucci shines as Blues beat Lakers

Third-year right side hitter William Colucci led all players with 19 points as the University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's volleyball team defeated the Nipissing Lakers 3-0 (25-16, 25-21, 25-23) on Friday night (Nov. 20) at Goldring Centre.

With the win, the Blues improve to 3-4, while the Lakers drop to 4-4 in the OUA standings.

A Toronto native, Colucci notched a game-high 17 kills, while adding one ace, one block and seven digs on the night. Fifth-year left side hitter Stefan Ristic had eight kills, eight digs and three aces, while sophomore Alex Ferris recorded eight kills and five digs.

Fifth-year setter Aleksa Miladinovic tallied 38 assists and eight digs in the victory.

Even at 8-8 in the early goings, Toronto went on an 8-2 run to take a 16-10 lead at the technical timeout. The Blues kept their lead throughout the rest of the set and a final point from Miladinovic sealed it 25-16 for U of T.

The Blues built a narrow lead early in the second and were up 16-11 at the break. The Lakers kept pace, but a couple of Colucci kills and a final kill from Ferris gave the Blues a 2-0 match lead, 25-21.

The third set proved to be close throughout, with Nipissing holding a 16-14 at the technical timeout. The Blues battled back and a final kill from Colucci closed the match, 3-0, in favour of the Blues.

Cameron Branch led the Lakers with 12 kills and six digs in the loss.

The Varsity Blues return to action Sunday night as they wrap up the first half of the season at York. Game time is set for 8 p.m. The match will be streamed live on OUA.tv.

Source: Toronto Varsity Blues

Marauders hammer Mustangs for seventh straight sweep

A year ago, the Western Mustangs shocked the crowd at the Burridge Gym, handing McMaster their only defeat of the regular season in their very first match. There was no danger of a similar fate befalling the Marauders on Friday, as the CIS no. 1-ranked squad dominated the Mustangs from the very first serve en route to their seventh consecutive sweep.

Set scores were 25-13, 25-22, 25-12 in favour of McMaster, who improved to 8-0 with the result and retained their commanding position atop the OUA standings.

Putting together an all-action performance in the win, Andrew Richards was the match's leading scorer with 14 points, including eight kills on 15 attempts versus two errors (.400), three aces and three solo blocks. Middle Danny Demyanenko (11.5) and right side Jayson McCarthy (10.5) also cracked double digits in points, as McMaster put their offensive variety on display.

A barrage from the service line put the Mustangs on the back foot from the opening moments of Friday's game, as Richards uncorked one of his three aces to give the Marauders an 11-5 lead and force Western coach Jim Sage to burn a timeout. That relentless pressure continued as the set wore on, and after killing to bring up set point, Richards forced another point with his serve to seal the set when Brad Hockin could only lift a shaky first pass.

The quality of McMaster's play dropped somewhat in the second set, with hitters appearing tentative in the wake of several attack line violations, and Western was able to stay in touch. After seeing their visitors draw within one point, McMaster rebuilt a three-point lead at the technical timeout on the strength of an Alex Elliott tip, but Western was far from done.

Pushing to level the match, the Mustangs tied the set at 21-all with a Brad Hockin ace, but McMaster crucially reeled off a 4-1 run to avoid the backslide. Setter Andrew Kocur provided the dagger on set point, killing off the second touch to give his team the commanding 2-0 overall lead.

 Reasserting their dominance in the third set, the Marauders once again attacked from the service line with Richards providing pinpoint accuracy, and forcing the Mustangs into a timeout at 11-5 after another spinning ace. It was McCarthy's turn to drop an ace on the Mustangs as his team entered the technical timeout with a nine-pioint lead, and the hosts never looked back from there. After a double block brought up match point, rookie Matt Passalent hammered an attack to the floor from the pipe to bring the night to a close.

Source: McMaster Marauders

Warriors win fourth straight in scrappy affair with Lancers

The Warriors picked up their fourth straight victory but it didn't come without a fight from the Windsor Lancers on Friday night at the PAC.  

The two combatants split the opening sets (25-16, 21-25) but Waterloo prevailed in the final two sets (25-17, 25-23) to come away with the 3-1 win.  Match point couldn't have been scripted any better for the black and gold as former Lancer Greg Simone (London) stepped to the service line and delivered a perfect ace in the back court to sink his old team. 

Waterloo improved to 5-3 with the win and are now in a tie for third overall with Ryerson, each at 10 points.  Windsor slipped to 1-6 on the season.

Overall the Warriors put away 52 kills in the match compared to Windsor's 42 while the biggest difference in the contest was Waterloo's 18 blocks to the Lancers' 11.

Athlete of the week Braden Cok (Waterloo) was on cue once again with a game high 19 kills while adding four blocks.  Jordan McConkey (Stratford) and Aidan Simone (London) were also in double figures in kills with 11 and 10 respectively.   Trevor Coathup (Ottawa) led his team in blocks with five while adding two service aces.

Setting up the attack all night long was Gibson Graham (Markham) who posted a season high 47 assists.   He also managed to sneak in a nice kill and earned three blocks.  Defensively Erich Woolley (New Dundee) made some key digs throughout the match and finished with 10.

On the Lancers side of the net, Josh Edwards led his team with 15 kills and three blocks.  Setter Blase Wasser had 32 assists in a losing effort.

Waterloo will be back to the PAC for their final home game of 2015 when they take on the Western Mustangs at 8pm, a game that can be seen live on OUA.tv.

Source: Waterloo Warriors