By Adam Button
Even Tony Hauser’s infamous post-game brownies couldn’t get the bitter taste out of the mouths of Ryerson’s men’s volleyball team after losing in three straight games to the Windsor Lancers on Sunday (25-22, 25-23, 2523).
Hauser, the father of Ryerson’s top hitter, Anton, bakes the Rams a box of brownies for every game.
“They’re a lot sweeter when we win,” said last season’s kills, aces and points leader in Ontario.
It was clear the Rams didn’t pack their best ingredients for the road game.
“It’s too bad we lost to a team like this,” said head coach Mirek Porosa. “I told them it’s a shame to volleyball.”
Windsor is among the weakest and shortest teams in the Ontario University Athletics and were also missing their best player.
The loss salted the Rams’ sweetest victory of the season: a five set thriller over the Western Mustangs a night earlier (25-19, 11-25, 14-25, 25-23, 1614). It was Ryerson’s first victory over the Mustangs in seven years.
“Saturday was a completely different story from Sunday,” said 6-foot-5 middle Mike Nesti. “Saturday there was no fighting or bickering… Sunday there was a lot of tension on the floor and it made for a bad result. To play that bad was kind of a disgrace.”
Porosa said the emotional win the night before contributed to the Rams’ poor showing.
“They didn’t recover from the long game yesterday,” the eight-year veteran coach aid. “They were dragging their asses.”
With the big win over Western, the Rams still had a lot of positives to take away from the weekend.
Team campaign Elisio Subranni had a break-out game and led the Rams with 10 blocks against the Mustangs.
He said that the Rams will be championship contenders if the team brings the energy they brought against Western to every game.
“In the end [of the game] they couldn’t play with us,” Subranni said. “When we played, we crushed them. I don’t think any team in the OUA can play with us when we play, except maybe U of T.”
Power Sasha Simic said he wasn’t going to hang his head after the loss. “For me the glass is still half full,” he said. “It’s not full, but it will be.”
Rams versus Queen’s University
Ryerson takes on the Golden Gaels this Sunday at 3 p.m., in the Kerr Hall Gym. Queen’s Coach Brenda Willis and Porosa have a longstanding rivalry. Earlier this season when Queen’s beat the Rams she called Ryerson a poorly coached, undisciplined team.
“In volleyball it’s always a rule that after a terrible game an excellent one follows and that’s something that Queen’s should be aware of,” said Porosa in a warning to Ontario’s second ranked team.
In that game the Rams were greeted to a less than warm welcome by the Golden Gael’s supporters.
“Their fans were pretty intense,” Nesti said. “You could see that some of our guys were affected by the crowd.”
The women’s volleyball team also takes on Queen’s at 1 p.m.
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