It was a busy night for the Ryerson Rams volleyball program as both the men’s and women’s teams ventured out to York University to take on the Lions.
Both teams brought back into the downtown Toronto school with the men’s team collecting their first win of the season.
The first game of the day pitted the men on the court where the Ram’s won 3-1. The home side won the first set before 2018-19 rookie of the year Xander Ketrzynski took the reins of the game and led Ryerson the three straight-set victories, putting the win in the back pocket of the Rams.
The performance of the game was certainly Ketrzynski who scored 22.5 points, a season-high for him.
After winning their first set win, the York Lions continued their success in the beginning of the second set before eventually surrendering the power of the match to the Rams. Once the Rams got on a roll, they didn’t let up en-route to their victory.
There was a last gasp effort from the Lions who tied the final set at 19, but Ryerson pulled ahead to win. It was a good effort from the Lions who do field a strong team in 2019-20, but the Rams proved too much for York.
On the female side, the Rams also found victory also by the same scoreline of 3-1. The loss leaves the Lions without a win so far this season as they sit at the bottom of the OUA with an 0-2 record.
Ryerson ranked second in the country in the U sports top 10 Tuesday rankings.
While the win did fall in favour of Ryerson., the performance from the Lions was very promising. Against such a highly-touted team, the Lions stayed in contention in every set with the largest margin of victory being 25-19 in the second set.
It was the defence that kept the Lions in the match. That effort was headlined by Wesley-Ann Bailey who finished the match with four blocks. It was an impressive feat in front of such a potent offence and she is a player who is going to be very important for the Lions in their search for success in 2019.
Both Ryerson teams are now 1-1, meanwhile, the York men have a foot up on Lionesses with their 1-1 record.
In the next matches, the Rams will now travel to the Nippising Lakers, meanwhile, the Lions also head north to Thunder Bay for a matchup against Lakehead University.