M-VOLLEYBALL ROUNDUP: Lions beat Lancers, Mustangs to extend winning streak to 3 games
Friday, November 21
Nipissing 3 @ Western 1 (24-26, 21-25, 25-20, 20-25)
London, Ont. – Following a brief break in their schedule the Western Mustangs men's volleyball team returned to the court on Friday night, falling in four sets to the Nipissing Lakers (24-26, 21-25, 25-20, 20-25) at Alumni Hall.
"I felt we played very well in the first set but it definitely frustrated the players. It would take a set before the guys could get over it," said head coach Jim Sage. "We played well in the third set, but let the fourth get away. We made too many errors."
The loss brings the Mustangs to a 4-3 record on the season, good for fourth place in the OUA standings. Friday's win was Nipissing's first of the year, and improves their record to 1-6.
Right from the first set the Lakers presented themselves as a team not to be underestimated as they kept up with the Mustangs with an exchange of points. With a kill from Doug Austrom at 4-4, Western would begin to create a substantial lead over the Lakers, as the purple and white would rally five points to lead the set 9-5 before an attack error by Mike Choja gave the Lakers a point.
Cameron Branch would lead the Lakers with three kills to try and close the gap but strong offensive play by the home side would keep the set in favour of the Mustangs, 16-10 at the technical timeout.
With a kill by Chris Newcombe the Lakers were forced to call a timeout at 20-13. Upon their return, it was evident that the time out was just what the Lakers needed as a number of Western errors helped them to tie the game 22-22 and forcing the Mustangs into their own timeout.
After exchanging points, the Lakers would take the first set 26-24 after two consecutive errors by the Mustangs.
The second set started off just as the first with both teams looking to take a significant lead; however, neither side was able to gain a sustainable advantage although Western held a slight lead at the technical timeout. Unscathed, the Lakers weren't ready to let the Mustangs get away and, with a kill from Lyndon Sonego followed by an error by Zeid Hamadeh, Nipissing was able to tie the game 17-17.
With the Lakers stepping up their defensive game, Western called a time out at 18-20 to help recover the game. But it wouldn't be enough as the Lakers rode the momentum to take the second set 25-21.
With Branch putting points on the board to start things off for the Lakers in the third set, Justin Scapinello would answer for the Mustangs with two kills to tie up the game. Followed by consecutive kills from Austrom and a service ace, the Lakers would take a timeout early in the set at 9-7.
The purple and white used their renewed composure to lead throughout the frame. First-year setter Matt Hooker would setup key points for the Mustangs as they created a five point lead at 16-11. An attempt to close the gap saw the Lakers come within two at 18-16 off a kill by Branch, but the Lakers would be forced to call their second time out at 22-17.
Coming off the timeout, Western didn't let up as Scapinello and Hamadeh contributed kills to give the Mustangs the third set 25-20.
Looking to force a fifth set, the Mustangs aimed to keep the Lakers at bay in the fourth. Tied at 5-5, an intense rally ensued with the Mustangs taking the point off a kill by Hooker and the Lakers taking their first time out.
To no surprise, the game would continue to be a tight contest between the two teams as they exchanged point throughout the fourth set, though it would be Nipissing to break from the pack with a kill from Sonego at 12-13.
Errors would once again begin to plague the Mustangs, as the Lakers increased their lead to 14-18. Unable to set up strong offensive plays the Mustangs looked to a timeout to help them get out of a five point deficit at 15-20.
Stepping back onto the court, Western was able to bring it within three points (18-21) after a service error but weren't able to gain enough offensive momentum to create the rally they needed.
The Mustangs would drop the set on a service error from Scapinello ending the fourth 20-25 in favour for the Lakers.
Branch led all players with 21.5 points, recording 19 kills with three assisted blocks. Scapinello continued to lead the Mustangs offence with 19.5 points with 19 kills and an assisted block and tops the OUA individual leader board with 137 kills on the season. Teammate Austrom follows with 18 points in the loss with 16 kills and two service aces.
The Mustangs return to the court on Saturday, November 22 at Alumni Hall as they take on the York Lions. Game time is set for 7: p.m. and fans can watch all the action live on OUA.tv
Source: Western Mustangs
York 3 @ Windsor 2 (23-25, 21-25, 25-18, 25-19, 14-16)
Nipissing 0 @ Windsor 3 (25-13, 25-21, 25-16)
The Lancer men's volleyball team split their final two home games before the Christmas break this weekend at the St. Denis Centre.
They narrowly missed completing a come from behind victory on Friday night when they fell 3-2 (23-25, 21-25, 25-18, 25-19, 14-16) in a very tight contest to the York Lions before rebounding on Saturday to sweep the Nipissing Lakers 3-0 (25-13, 25-21, 25-16) at the St. Denis Centre.
Heading into their final week of competition, Windsor is 4-4 on the year and in a three way tie with the Western Mustangs and Queen's Gaels.
On Friday night, the Lions won the first two sets before Windsor stormed back to win sets three and four to send the game into the fifth and final set. Just like the rest of the match, the teams' battled hard in the fifth and traded points back and forth right until the final point.
The Lions opened up the scoring in the first set with a kill from Ray Szeto, however, the Lancers didn't let the Lions take the lead as they tied the score several times. With the set tied at 23, two Lancer errors gave the Lions the win.
The second set proved to be another tie-breaking battle with the Lions barely pushing through at the end to win the set.
The Lancers came out determined in the third set and did not let the Lions advance. A number of kills from Gabriel Burlacu guided the Lancers as they shut down the Lions to win the set. In the fourth set, the Lancers battered kills on the Lions en route to a six point set victory.
Windsor was led by Greg Simone with 14 kills, two aces and one block, while Gabe Burlacu has similar stats with 14 kills, two blocks and one ace and Adam Thompson had 10 kills.
Ray Seto led the Lions with 20 kills and 12 digs, while Josh Henderson had a big game defensively for the visitors with 5.5 blocks to go along with 16 kills.
On Saturday against Nipissing, the Lancers dominated the game from the opening serve.
The Lancers jumped out to an early lead, winning the first set 25-13 before the Lakers responded in the second with a better effort, but it was still Windsor who came away with the win.
In the third, the Lancers put things away, winning 25-16 to close things out.
Burlacu led all athletes with a game high 16 kills and 19 points.
The Lancers will travel to the GTA next weekend for a pair of games against the Toronto Varsity Blues and Ryerson Rams.
Source: Windsor Lancers
RMC 1 @ Queens 3 (25-10, 25-18, 23-25 and 25-9)
KINGSTON, Ont. (November 21, 2014) – The Gaels (4-4) men's volleyball team dominated the RMC Paladins (0-8) in a four set win (3-1), 25-10, 25-18, 23-25 and 25-9.
In the first set Queen's defence was impenetrable as Aidan Roos (West Elgin, Ont.) and Dylan Hunt (Aurora, Ont.) set the tone for the match with a defensive block against the Paladins to get the first point. With an outstanding attack from Markus Trence (Orangeville, Ont.), who had four kills in the first set, Queen's finished the set off to take it 25-10.
The Gaels opened the scoring in the second set with a kill from Roos. Again Queen's demonstrated strong defensive play against RMC and managed to capitalize on the Paladins miscommunications. The teams were neck and neck at the 17-point mark but Queen's subbed in Mike Tomlinson (Stratford, Ont.) who lit the game up with four kills finishing the set at 25-18 for Queen's.
Right from the get go in the third set the scoring went back and forth between both teams. The Gaels managed to pull away but the Paladins got right back in it with a four-point streak to tie the game at 21-21. A close game right till the end, RMC managed to pull out a win off an attacking error and claim the set 25-23.
The Paladins struggled to deal with the Gaels attack coming from all angles in set four. The Gaels smoothly finished the final set with a final kill from Tomlinson and an attacking error by RMC to take it 25-9.
The Gaels were led by Trence as he lit up the court with a game-high of 16 kills adding eight digs and two solo blocks. Roos was just as strong also getting a game-high of eight serving aces, eight kills and six blocks for the Gaels.
Queen's is back in action tomorrow night at 8pm in an exhibition against Team Canada FTC in the ARC main gym.
Source: Queen's Gaels
Saturday, November 22
Toronto 0 @ Waterloo 3 (25-19, 25-17, 25-14)
The Waterloo Warriors (5-4) dominated the Toronto Varsity Blues (2-5) Saturday afternoon at the PAC, defeating the blue and white in straight sets (25-19, 25-17, 25-14). Jordan Dyck (St. Catharines) and Nikola Dimitrijevic (Mississauga) connected on 11 kills in the victory which pushes the Warriors to a three game winning streak who now sit in 4th place in the OUA.
The Warriors jumped out to an early 12-8 lead over Toronto in the first set which was an otherwise back and forth affair. Both sides exchanged points as the Warriors were leading 16-13 at the technical timeout.
Waterloo would force the next 2 points to force Toronto into a timeout and this is where the momentum shifted immensely in the Warriors favour. Toronto would be forced into a 2nd timeout at 22-15 for the black and gold before Waterloo would win the first set 25-19.
The Warriors offence continued to click and they jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the second set and forced the Varsity Blues into an early time out. Waterloo's Dimitrijevic continued to pass the ball around nicely as multiple Warriors got in on the hit parade and thwarted the Toronto defence. Waterloo pushed to a 16-11 lead at the technical timeout before eventually winning the set 25-18 to take a 2-0 lead.
Waterloo seemed most determined to take a straight sets victory as they jumped out to a 10-4 lead and forced Toronto to use a timeout. All afternoon the Varsity Blues' defence struggled against the black and gold's quick offence as they saw themselves down 16-10 at the technical timeout. Waterloo's Jordan Dyck (St. Catharines) would hammer down with an offensive kill on match point to close out the third set and the match 25-14.
The Warriors' Dyck lead the way with 11 kills and 8 blocks (OUA lead with 1.45 blocks per set) with Jordan McConkey (Stratford) and Zachary Doherty (Goderich) combining for 14 kills, 7 blocks and 4 digs. Dimitrijevic collected 32 assists and 2 blocks while Erich Woolley (New Dundee) picked up 16 digs to lead the OUA in digs (103; 5th in CIS) and digs per set (3.12).
Standouts for the Varsity Blues were Thomas Meier with 9 kills and 3 digs while Jake Dysselhof who had 8 kills and 3 digs. Michael Denton picked up 17 assists and 7 digs in the losing effort.
Waterloo moves to 6-4 on the season and will look to close out their season in winning fashion against the Guelph Gryphons before the holiday break. The Warriors will host Guelph on Friday, November 28th at 8pm in the PAC and on OUA TV.
Source: Waterloo Warriors
York 3 @ Western 1 (20-25, 25-19, 20-25, 19-25)
LONDON, Ont. – The Mustangs men's volleyball team looked to recover from their three game losing-streak against the York Lions Saturday night. However, the Mustangs were not able to match York's solid offense and were defeated in four sets (20-25, 25-19, 20-25, 19-25) Saturday night by the Lions at Alumni Hall.
With the loss, the Mustangs hold a 4-4 record on the season and take a significant hit in standings to place them in seventh place in the OUA. York improves their season record to 5-3 to surpass the Mustangs and currently sit in fourth.
"I thought we played better tonight [than in last night's game]," says Coach Jim Sage about his team's performance. "York's a good team, and they're going to be around at the end, and a dangerous playoff team. Our focus now is going to be making playoffs. We had a great start to the season and now it's slowly turning to the worse. But we're still alive, we'll breathe again, and want to finish off on a good note."
After opening up the first set with an unforced attack error from York, the teams traded points until three consecutive kills from the Mustangs pushed the Lions into a deficit. A kill from Josh Henderson, followed directly by multiple Mustang errors allowed the Lions to pull ahead for the first time in the set at 8-10.
Extending their lead to five points at 10-15, the Lions quickly pounced on holes in the Mustang defense to exploit known weak spots. Continuing to be defeated by unforced errors, the Mustangs were forced into a time-out at 15-22.
Despite regaining the serve at 17-23 the Mustangs were unable to recover, as the first set ended at 20-25 after a serving error from Justin Scapinello.
Again opening up the scoreboard with an exchange of points, the Mustangs pulled ahead by focusing on block coverage and reducing errors at the net. Forced into a time-out at 10-5, the Lions struggled against the newfound confidence of the Mustangs.
Plagued by unforced errors, York forced themselves further into a point deficit while the Mustangs capitalized on their doubts.
Despite being stalled at in the low twenties by a sudden onslaught of powerful attacks by York, the Mustangs pushed through to end the set 25-19 on a York error.
Chris Newcombe started off the third set for the Mustangs with a kill followed directly by a block for a quick start. Furthermore, teammates Mike Choja and Zeid Hamadeh pushed the Mustangs further ahead at 9-3 with a series of blocks.
Unwilling to allow the third set to get away, the Lions refocused to close the gap to 11-8 after adapting to the Mustang blocks. As the point gap began to close, both teams relied on strong defense and coverage to keep rallies alive.
York fought back to bring the score to 16-16. Going point-for-point, York finally gained the substantial lead they needed to bring the score 20-23 after numerous Mustang errors. Ending on an attack from Josh Henderson, the Lions took the third set 20-25.
Consecutive Mustang errors opened up the fourth set, but still couldn't keep Western from edging slightly ahead of York early on.
With the match tied up at 9-9 and again at 13-13, the respective desires of the two teams to extend or end the match after four sets was evident. Exchanging points again, the Mustangs were forced into a time-out at 15-16. York, extending their lead to three points, exploited the defensive holes and communication difficulties discovered in previous sets to force the Mustangs into another time-out at 18-22.
Unable to combat the flurry of kills coming from the opposite side of the court, the Mustangs lost the fourth set at 19-25, ending the match, after a kill from Ray Szeto.
In addition to taking the final shot of the game, Szeto topped the scoresheet with 21.5 total points from 18 kills, one service ace, one solo block, and three assisted blocks. Veteran Mustang Justin Scapinello followed closely behind with 21 points from 18 kills, one service ace, one solo block, and two assisted blocks.
The Mustangs next head to Toronto for on Friday November 28 to take on the Ryerson Rams, followed by a game at the University of Toronto on November 29. Friday's game is set to begin at 6:00 p.m., with Saturday's beginning at 8:00 p.m.
Source: Western Mustangs
Sunday, November 23
McMaster 3 @ Toronto 0 (20-25, 23-25, 14-25)
The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's volleyball team fell 3-0 (20-25, 23-25, 14-25) to the McMaster Marauders on Sunday, November 23 at Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport.
With the loss, the Blues drop to 2-7 and remain in ninth place in the OUA standings.
Fifth-year veteran Jake Dysselhof led the Blues with 12 kills, four digs and one block, while rookie Thomas Meier added nine kills and three digs. Alex Ferris notched a team-high nine digs in the loss.
The Marauders got out to an early 7-2 lead but the Blues rallied and went on a 9-5 streak to bring the game within two (13-11). McMaster held a 16-12 lead at the timeout. The Blues kept close but a serving ace from Seyar Kanimi sealed the first set for the Marauders 25-20.
The second set was a back and forth battle with neither team holding more than a three-point lead. The Blues were up 16-13 at the technical time out. The Marauders came back however on a 9-4 run and despite some late points from U of T, took the set 25-23.
McMaster closed out the game building a 16-8 lead at the break and a final set win of 25-14.
Three Marauders notched 10 kills in the victory – Brandon Koppers, Jayson McCarthy and Danny Demyanenko.
The Varsity Blues are back in action next Friday, November 28 as they host the Windsor Lancers at Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
Source: Toronto Varsity Blues
