The men’s volleyball team cashed in its home court advantage on the weekend and took the championship at a preseason tournament against three other Ontario universities.
Ryerson hosted the York University Lions, Queen’s University Gaels and Western University Mustangs at the 17th Annual National Bank Invitational Volleyball tournament at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
The Rams started off slow, losing their first game to the Lions, but rallied to beat everyone else they faced on the court, winning tournament gold in their second match against the Lions.
After losing 3-2 to the Lions in the tournament opener, the Rams took a break and came back strong against the Gaels. Queen’s put up a fight, winning the second set of four and driving the score up for the fourth—but they were no match for the Ram’s who won the game 3-1 (25-14, 17-25, 25-15, 31-29.)
Ryerson brought a winning attitude to their game against the Mustangs on Saturday. The Rams won the first two sets 25-23 and 25-22. Coach Mirek Porosa watched the first two sets from the balcony, and left the coaching to the rest of his staff.
During the third set, Ryerson’s team appeared to get a little too relaxed with its lead, and let the Mustangs come back with a win (22-25.) The Rams didn’t make that mistake in the fourth again, and ended up dominating Western 25-17, winning the overall game 3-1.
Queen’s Gaels got a second chance at beating the Rams in the semifinal game where the two were again matched up. Once again however, the Gaels failed to better Ryerson, again losing in a 3-1 game (27-25, 25-17, 17-25, 25-16).
Ryerson ended up in the final match against the Lions again on Sunday. This time, the Rams held their own against their opponents to come out on top.
The match went into four sets, the majority of which went over the standard 25 points because of how close the scores were (28-30, 26-24, 25-18, 26-24). The Lions shook the Rams confidence by taking the first set and presenting a strong front against the home team. Ryerson countered by not giving up any other sets to win the championship title.
The Rams’ will play their first regular season game on October 18th against the University of Toronto at 8:30 p.m. at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
Emily's a third-year Ryerson School of Journalism student.